What’s a flight attendant to do if she gets hungry, 35,000 feet in the air? Anything but eat passengers’ leftovers, apparently.

An Urumqi Air flight attendant has been suspended after a video showing the stewardess chowing down on passengers’ in-flight meals went viral.

According to reports, the airline confirmed that it had suspended the employee for not following standard procedures, stating that the boxes of food were leftovers.

However, netizens have jumped to the flight attendant’s defence, expressing their support and sympathy.

Wrote Facebook user Gabriel Seck: “When all she wanted to do was just to keep her stomach full and not waste any food…”

While on Weibo, netizens wondered why the issue was such a big deal, and that “the food was going into the bin anyway, what’s wrong with taking a few bites?”.

They instead attacked her colleague who shot and posted the incriminating footage online.

candicec@sph.com.sg

JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR – Thousands of protesters in Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia joined rallies on Friday to condemn Washington’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, as authorities tightened security outside US embassies.

Leaders in both Asian countries have joined a global chorus of voices condemning US President Donald Trump’s move.

Several thousand protesters, some shouting anti-US slogans and burning an effigy of Trump, gathered in front of the American embassy in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

In Indonesia, hundreds of protesters mostly clad in white were arriving outside the US embassy in Jakarta, capital of the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country.

Some wore checkered scarves and waved Palestinian flags, while others shouted”Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

“We have prepared personnel and patrols to secure the US embassy. We are expecting between 500 and 1,000 demonstrators,”said Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono.

The US embassy in Jakarta advised its citizens to avoid areas where there were demonstrations and said its consulate in Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya had suspended public services on Friday.

Indonesia has been a long-running supporter of the two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and there have been public demonstrations in support of Palestine in recent years.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Thursday urged the United States to reconsider its decision and instructed his foreign minister to summon the US ambassador for an explanation.

In Malaysia, leaders from the ruling party United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) and the popular right wing Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), both of which represent the majority ethnic Malay-Muslims, led the rally and representatives of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas are expected to join.

Protests are also expected in South Asia. Pakistan’s major Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami has announced rallies in all major cities after Friday prayers.

President Trump said on Wednesday that the United States would move its embassy to Jerusalem in the coming years.

Protests have already broken out in the West Bank and the Gaza strip as the Islamist group Hamas urged Palestinians to launch a fresh uprising against Israel.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest barriers to a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace. Its eastern sector was captured by Israel in a 1967 war and annexed in a move not recognised internationally.

Palestinians claim East Jerusalem for the capital of an independent state they seek.

TOKYO – A Shinto priestess was killed on the grounds of a famous Tokyo shrine by a man wielding a traditional Japanese sword who then killed another woman before committing suicide, police said on Friday (Dec 8), in what local media described as an apparent family feud.

Nagako Tomioka, 58, chief priestess of Tomioka Hachimangu shrine in Tokyo, was attacked by Shigenaga Tomoika, 56, as she got out of a car on Thursday evening. Media reports said he was her younger brother.

Also, a woman aged in her 30s who was with Shigenaga Tomoika attacked and stabbed the driver of the car with a Japanese sword, police said.

The injuries to his shoulder and chest were not life-threatening. After slashing the priestess, Shigenaga Tomioka then stabbed the younger woman to death with a sword, before killing himself, police said.

The woman’s identity was not given.

Police declined to comment on the motive for the killings, but domestic media said the incident appeared to stem from a family feud.

Shigenaga sent a threatening letter to his sister in 2006, saying he would “send her to hell”, the Sankei newspaper said.

Japan has very restrictive gun laws and gun-related killings are rare. Shinto is the traditional religion of Japan and many shrines dot the country.

The Tomioka Hachinangu shrine, established in 1927, has a close link with sumo and the emperor and empress visited in 2012.

TOKYO – Japan’s Oxford-educated crown prince, Naruhito, looks set to bring a more global outlook to the ancient imperial institution while carrying on Emperor Akihito’s legacy of promoting peace and reconciliation with Asia when he ascends the throne in 2019.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet on Friday (Dec 1) signed off on an April 30, 2019 date for the octogenarian Akihito’s retirement – the first abdication by a Japanese monarch in two centuries. Akihito, who turns 84 on Dec 23, has spent much of his nearly three decades on the throne trying to heal the wounds of a war fought in his father Hirohito’s name and highlighting the needs of the vulnerable in society.

He said in August 2016 that he feared age would make it hard to fulfil his duties.

“As an Oxford-educated scholar and well-travelled crown prince, Naruhito can draw on a wealth of international experience in carrying out the duties his father pioneered,” said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University Japan.

Naruhito, 57, is an advocate for environmental causes, and has taken part in international conferences on clean water.

“Certainly, on environmental issues, he’s very passionate,”said Shihoko Goto, a senior associate for Northeast Asia at the Washington-based Wilson Centre.

“He is also very concerned about women’s rights … the idea of empowering women and giving them a position of dignity that goes beyond their place in the traditional world.”

Naruhito defied palace officials to marry Masako Owada, a Harvard- and Oxford-educated diplomat who has suffered from stress-related illness brought on by the demands of palace life and pressure to bear a royal heir.

At one point, he shocked the public with his blunt defence of his wife from criticism and pressure, drawing a rebuke from his younger brother and sorrowful remarks from his father.

Masako’s daughter, 16-year-old Aiko, cannot inherit the males-only throne.

A one-off law allowing Akihito to abdicate was enacted in June, but did not address the controversial issue of female succession – a matter that is becoming increasingly pressing as the royal family shrinks and ages.

Akihito has only one grandson, 11-year-old Prince Hisahito.

How Masako, 53, copes with the role of empress will be closely watched.

“My hope is that … she will be able to express herself and embrace some of the things she wants to do and be at the forefront of imperial diplomacy,” the Wilson Centre’s Goto said.