GERMAN TEEN'S SMOKE BREAK LEADS TO SINGAPORE JAIL

SINGAPORE -- A German teenager caught smoking in the toilet of a
Singapore-bound airliner has ended up in jail after police found him
with marijuana, a report said Saturday.

Ray Sebastian Nantwi Lutzenkirchen, 19, was sentenced to six months in
jail by a Singapore court on Friday, The Straits Times reported.

He was on a Gulf Air flight from Bahrain earlier this month when a
stewardess smelled cigarette smoke as he came out of the toilet, the
paper said.

The teen was arrested when the plane landed in Singapore. A search
revealed that he was carrying 1.53 grams (0.05 ounces) of cannabis,
The Straits Times said.

"You were caught in possession of a Class A controlled drug. This is
regarded very seriously in Singapore," District Judge Danielle Yeow
was quoted as telling the youth.

Singapore has one of the world's stiffest anti-drug laws and
trafficking of more than 500 grams of cannabis is punishable by death.

An Australian, Nguyen Tuong Van, was hanged this month in Singapore
for heroin trafficking despite international calls for his life to be
spared.