Top 10 odd news from Turkey in 2014

From notorious terrorists to naughty cats and salacious kisses, 2014 has been a year of oddities in Turkey. Here are our picks: 1) Al-Qaeda mastermind featured in Turkish cosmetic ad

A Turkish cosmetics company uses the photo of a notorious al-Qaeda militant in an online ad for its hair removal product. "The guy is quite hairy, so we thought his body was a good fit for our ad," a company official told the Hürriyet Daily News on Nov. 4.

2) Cat ‘sabotages' Turkish elections

A cat that entered a power distribution unit caused controversial power blackouts during the vote-counting process after the March 30 local elections, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said April 1, triggering an avalanche of criticism and derision on social media.

3) Istanbul's eyebrow-raising bid

Istanbul makes an audacious bid to be named European Green Capital 2017 despite the increasing number of environmentalist protests across the country.

4) Stepping on 2,000-year-old mosaics

The mayor of a southeastern Turkish province draws the ire of social media users after pictures emerged showing her and her aides stepping on 2,000-year-old mosaics excavated from the ancient Roman city of Zeugma during a press presentation event. 

5) Lip-o-suction kiss on Turkish TV fined

Turkey's media watchdog delves into the salacious details of a kiss scene in a TV drama, which it described as "lip-o-suction" in an expert report.

6) Donkey tied to rails

A donkey tied to a railway track in Central Anatolia narrowly escaped a tragic death when the operator of a running freight train noticed it at the last minute and managed to stop the train with...