DMX jailed

Troubled rapper DMX has been jailed after failing to attend a court hearing for driving charges in New York State on Wednesday.

A City Court judge in White Plains, New York State, ordered the hip-hop star back behind bars on Thursday until his $25,000 (€20,000) bail is met.

The rapper, real name Earl Simmons, was slapped with an arrest warrant after Judge BARBARA Leak insisted she was unimpressed with the star's no-show after she previously granted him two postponements.

Judge Leak said: "We have granted him a number of courtesies. It ends now."

His lawyer Stacey Murray claimed Simmons had fallen ill after flying from Arizona for the court date.

On June 2, the rapper was stopped by police for speeding and cutting off another motorist in White Plains and charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Nine days late, he was issued with a summons for driving on the hard shoulder of a road to avoid congestion in Harrison, New York State.

Last year, Simmons served 70 days in jail for violating his parole following a 2004 incident in which he posed as an undercover federal agent and crashed his vehicle through a security gate at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City.