Boy George on US litter duty

Boy George will perform his five-day community service order by picking up litter on New York's streets in the August heat.

He will report to the city's District 3, which includes the tourist areas of Chinatown and Little Italy, on August 14.

The former Culture Club singer pleaded guilty in March to falsely reporting a burglary at his Manhattan home last autumn.

The 45 year-old singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, had wanted to put on a show to raise money for an Aids organisation as part of his sentence but the judge rejected his request.

George said: "It would have been more useful to make 30 grand with a concert, rather than be prancing around in a park."

He described his arrest in October as "just a very unfortunate trauma". "I regret the whole thing," he said.

He added that he did not know why he had called the police to his New York flat, who said they found a small amount of cocaine there, but refused to discuss the incident further.