Eating Dog Meat

Medan, Indonesia – For civil servant Silas Sihombing, the reasons for eating dog meat could not be much simpler.

“Today I’m eating dog because I’m hungry,” Sihombing told Al Jazeera in between mouthfuls of grilled dog meat at Lau Dimbo Simalem restaurant in Medan, North Sumatra.

“And look, it’s making me sweat. Dog will do that, the meat makes you feel hot.”

Dog meat restaurants are found all over Medan, where the Indigenous Batak people are known for their taste for the protein.

About 7 percent of Indonesians are estimated to eat dog meat, according to Dog Meat Free Indonesia, a group that campaigns against the dog meat trade.

Although 87 percent of Indonesia’s 270 million people are Muslim and view dog products as haram, or forbidden, in the same way as pork, about 9 percent of the population is Christian.  READ MORE...

Life in Ukraine

        Olena Ivanivna, 65, in front of her house in Marinka, eastern Ukraine [Emre Caylak/Al Jazeera]

Marinka, Ukraine – Valentina Gordeyeva realised something was coming when the tops of nearby fir trees started to shake but as she ran to shelter in a nearby shop, a shard of shrapnel pierced the soft flesh of her left hand.

“I was holding a bag and felt pain, and then I saw blood running down my bag,” the 65-year-old said, her thumb and wrist now bandaged after she became one of four civilians wounded in shelling by Russian-backed separatists since Thursday.

Pointing to the site where she was hit near a bus stop in Marinka, eastern Ukraine, she said a nearby school had also been damaged in the attack.

The city of 10,000 is right on the front line, with separatist territory just metres away. It lies just beyond the western edge of Donetsk, the self-proclaimed capital of one of two territories in the Donbas region controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

After eight years of a conflict that has killed more than 14,000 people, many here have gotten used to the threat of guns and artillery. Most of the city’s buildings are riddled with the scars of conflict, and intact roofs or windows are rare.

However, as tensions with Russia spiralled over the last few days, the attacks have become the most intense in years, hitting residential areas – even a kindergarten.

Artillery fire has intensified along the entire front line, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Saturday.

Soldiers on the front near Mariupol, a port city in the far east of the country, told Al Jazeera they experienced the heaviest shelling they can ever recall on Friday night, sharing chilling audio recordings of explosions.

On Saturday, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and four others were injured.  When Al Jazeera visited Marinka on that afternoon, the booms of continued shelling could be heard nearby.  READ MORE...