Marmara Region

The discovery of a radioactive substance stirred panic in the northwestern province of Sakarya on Oct. 20, as a child was hospitalized due to purple-colored spots that appeared on his body. 

The 16-year-old child, identified only as Eyüp B., was hospitalized after playing with a metal object he found in a construction site in the Arifiye district.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) will launch a tender for an air rail system to link two rapidly developing urban areas on the European side of the city. 

The open tender for the Başakşehir-Halkalı route will be held on Nov. 14, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Oct. 20. 

Avcı said the rumors that the AKM, a contested arts and culture venue located at the heart of Istanbul's Taksim Square, would be turned into a shopping mall are "not true."

The General Directorate of Highways has announced they will increase the fines assessed to heavy vehicles crossing the Fatih Sultan Mehmet (FSM) Bridge on Istanbul's Bosporus from 92 to 500 Turkish Liras.
 
The crossings currently cost less than what the drivers are supposed to pay if they take the newly opened third bridge.

One man died and two others were wounded on Oct. 16 due an explosion of hand-made dynamite, prepared in order to find treasure in the northeastern province of Kocaeli, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Seven locals, two of whom were siblings, decided to use dynamite to mine areas of Kocaeli suspected of harboring treasure.

Last weekend, the headline of daily Hürriyet should have sent shockwaves to all politicos and business figures. In the most historic shopping malls of all, namely the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, 600 shops have been closed because of an "unspoken" economic crisis. Four decades ago such news toppled a shah in Iran.

One of Turkey’s mega projects, the Eurasia Tunnel, which allows automobiles transit access between the Asian and European sides of Istanbul under the Bosporus strait, will be transited by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in an official test drive on Saturday. President Erdogan will drive from Europe to Asia through the tunnel in his official car.

A fire that broke out in the roof of a poultry farm during repair work has killed 21,000 chickens in the Kandıra district of Turkey's northwestern province of Kocaeli, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Fire broke out on Sept. 30 after a welder's spark touched isolation materials during construction and repair work in the roof of the poultry farm belonging to Nihat Ayvazoğlu.

The son of a famous Turkish film director has been released by an Istanbul court after being sentenced to six years and three months in jail on Oct. 4 for killing a police officer and wounding another in a traffic accident.

A sculpture created in memory of "Tombili," the portly cat who became a social media phenomenon after being photographed posing on a sidewalk in Istanbul's Ziverbey neighborhood, will be inaugurated on Oct. 4 on World Animal Day.