Places

The Hisart Live History Museum, which houses 1,500-year-old historical artifacts in Istanbul's Kağıthane district, will reopen on Feb. 1 after a renovation process.

Founded by Nejat Çuhadaroğlu, the renewed face of the museum was launched on Jan. 19.

The murderer of Sarai Sierra, a U.S. traveler who was found dead near Istanbul's old city walls in 2013, has once again been sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison during his retrial.

Istanbul is taking the lead in the ticket sales of the New Year's lottery with a prize money of 120 million Turkish Liras ($8.8 million), daily Milliyet has reported.

The western province of İzmir, the northwestern province of Kocaeli and the capital Ankara follow Istanbul in the ticket sales, the daily reported on Dec. 8.

It's still December, but many people are already looking at the 2022 calendar and planning around the national holidays next year.

2022 is not a leap year. Of the 365 days, 248 are working days, and 16 are public holidays. These holidays, which coincide with a day off, are offset by a day off in the first days of the following working week.

The comprehensive efforts of Turkish authorities toward the goal of turning Istanbul into a U.N. hub in line with Turkey's business and humanitarian foreign policy are bearing fruit.

The U.N. will relocate some headquarters to Istanbul from Geneva and open an Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the metropolis to support field operations worldwide.

Italy has denied entry to three Turkish citizens due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions.

The Turkish nationals, who traveled from Istanbul to Rome, on Dec. 2 were briefly detained at the airport and eventually sent back to Turkey later in the day.

Nearly 7 million tourists visited Istanbul in the first 10 months of the year, while foreign tourist arrivals in the city leaped almost 116 percent in October from a year ago.

Turkey's cultural, commercial and financial capital welcomed 1.15 million visitors in October, which marked the highest number of international holidaymakers visiting the city on record this year.

The Israeli city Tel Aviv is the most expensive city in the world, according to the British magazine "Economist", DPA reported. As a result, it de facto dethroned the French capital from this position. Paris remains in second place, which it shares with Singapore. Next on the top positions in the ranking are Zurich, Hong Kong and New York. Last is the Syrian capital Damascus.

Extreme winds of up to 130 kilometres an hour left hundreds of buildings damaged, trucks overturned, trees uprooted and roofs smashed on Monday and Tuesday in Istanbul and the Turkish regions of Thrace, Marmara and the Western Black Sea.

"Boji," Istanbul's beloved stray dog who has captured hearts after being spotted by the city's locals for regularly using public transport, has been framed and accused of pooping on a train.

Footage from a surveillance camera showed a man leaving the poop on the seat of a train, attempting to frame Boji and accuse him of leaving the feces on public transport.