The E. coli outbreak concentrated in northern Germany has spread to 11 other countries, including the U.S., the World Health Organization said Friday, amid increasing concern about the new strain's virulence.
The German government said a "European solution" will be found to compensate vegetable growers and traders who have suffered losses as consumers avoid raw vegetables and salads.
By Thursday, 1,122 cases of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli had been reported, while 502 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a form of kidney failure caused by this E. coli strain, had been reported, the WHO said.
In all but two of the cases the patients lived in or had recently visited northern Germany.
But the number of cases of HUS in the country had increased to 520, German authorities said Friday.
So far, the outbreak has killed 18 people in Germany and one in Sweden. Most of the victims have been women.
Health officials said four people in the U.S. might be linked to the outbreak.
All four were in northern Germany in May and officials are confident that they were infected with E. coli in that country. Three of them -- two women and a man -- are hospitalized with a kidney complication that has become a hallmark of the outbreak.
Besides Germany and the U.S., the countries affected are: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland and Britain.
Though Spanish cucumbers were cleared of blame for spreading the bug, described by Chinese researchers as a "new super-toxic" bacterium, a German Consumer Ministry spokesman repeated that consumers should avoid eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes and salad.
The difficulties doctors experience in treating the rare infection was raising concerns Friday.
"The severity of this strain has resulted in great pressure on the health services," said Winifred Kern of the University Hospital in Freiburg.
In northern Germany, hospitals were "experiencing a problem with availability of intensive care beds due to the high number of cases with life threatening complications," he said.
Doctors also questioned Europe's preparedness to deal with future outbreaks.
"This most recent E. coli epidemic, of a strain previously unseen in an outbreak, shows us yet again that new bacteria and infections are just around the corner," said Giuseppe Cornaglia, president of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. "The pan-European nature of this E. coli outbreak ... reinforces the need for concerted cooperation across borders to tackle not only this outbreak, but also future ones."
Microsoft has pulled back the curtain and given the world its first glimpse of what we can expect from Windows 8. Microsoft made a point of clarifying that Windows 8 will run on existing hardware, but it failed to mention that you might need a new desk.
Why? Well, Microsoft seems to have gone to great lengths to modernize the user interface of Windows--this is by far the most dramatic makeover Windows has gotten in its history. One of the defining features of the Windows 8 interface is that it is uniquely suited for manipulating and interacting via touch. As natural as touch gestures might be for the Windows 8 operating system, it is not natural to reach up to tap the monitor sitting on your desk.
I should know. I already have a touchscreen monitor that I connect my laptop to when I am sitting at my desk. It is an Acer T230H 23-inch monitor. I thought that it would be really cool to be able to interact with Windows 7 via touch, but the reality is that is highly impractical. I tried it for a while, but my shoulders get tired pretty quick when holding my arm out straight in front of me for extended periods to tap and swipe the screen.
I realize that beneath the veneer of flashy tiles, and the revamped 'Zune-esque' user interface, the traditional Windows operating system I am used to exists somewhere. Yes, it is possible to navigate Windows 8 with a mouse and keyboard, and the touchscreen interface is not a requirement. But, I would rather be able to use touch gestures as well.
What Windows 8 needs is a desk where the monitor lays down instead of standing up on top of the desk. But, a completely flat monitor would also be a pain ergonomically--both in terms of the viewing angle and strain on your neck, and in terms of having to reach out across it to tap and swipe.
But, if the monitor were lying at a slight angle--with the base essentially making contact with the top of the keyboard, it would be in a good position for viewing, and in a reasonable position for working with the touchscreen interface.
So, Windows 8 will work on my existing laptop hardware, and Windows 8 will work with my existing touchscreen monitor. But, I need some new furniture that make it practical to actually use the touchscreen monitor. Microsoft needs to coordinate efforts with furniture makers like Bush, Sauder, and IKEA to develop new desk designs that position the monitor for Windows 8
The same group that was responsible for hacking into PBS' site recently to post fake news claiming Tupac Shakur was alive has set its sights on Sony. Lulz Boat said it had broke into the SonyPictures.com website and compromised the personal information of one million users.
Among the information is name, password, e-mail address, date of birth, and home address. Any other information the user opted to share with Sony is also in the hands of these hackers as well. The hackers were only able to download data on 150,000 of those users, but walked away with admin details and 3.5 million music coupons and 75,000 music codes, it said.
For Sony, it's only the latest in a series of at least a dozen hacks to various properties over the past two months. The most serious obviously was the hack that took down the PlayStation Network, but smaller hacks have occurred to other Sony properties, including Sony Online Entertainment and Sony Ericsson Canada.
What may be most embarrassing for Sony is again the company has been revealed to have done a poor job with securing data. The hackers said that passwords were stored without any encryption at all -- in plain text -- making it even easier for them to break into compromised accounts with little trouble.
"SonyPictures.com was owned by a very simple SQL injection, one of the most primitive and common vulnerabilities, as we should all know by now," the group said in a post to PasteBin. "From a single injection, we accessed EVERYTHING. Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?"
This latest hack again brings into question the issue of leadership at the top. While people have been quick to blame Sony's IT department, the company's top executives could equally be as much to blame for not ensuring their network is secure. CEO Sir Howard Stringer is one of those, who seems agitated when talking about the company's response to the issue.
"[He] seems to be agitated by questions about Sony's sluggish response. He would be well-served by simply absorbing the criticism and articulating the concern Sony had for its system and accounts," Jason Maloni said at the time, who is senior vice president at crisis management firm Levick.
Diplomatic tensions escalated Thursday as China angrily denied it was behind a high-level breach of Google’s e-mail accounts.
But as U.S. officials said they were investigating the episode that hit senior government and military personnel, new questions emerged about just how much freedom the nation’s leaders should have on the Web.
A rush by government officials to use the hottest new gadgets and Internet services could be making them easier targets for hackers and others who want access to sensitive data, security experts say.
“The trade-off of user-friendliness and ease of use is less security wrapped around it,” said Wayne Matus, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop and an expert on Internet security law. “Two locks around your door make it harder to get in, which is a pain, but that’s the point.”
Google said the breach was targeted and part of a phishing scam that duped victims into giving user names and passwords to hackers in the eastern Chinese city of Jinan. The hackers, according to Google, were then able to monitor the users’ correspondence and forward e-mails from the affected accounts to another account.
The Lanxiang Vocational School, which trains some computer scientists for the Chinese military, is in Jinan, where the latest attack appeared to originate. The school was implicated in last year’s hacking attack on Google.
The Chinese government denied the claims on Thursday, with a foreign ministry official calling Google’s accusations that the breach stemmed from China “a fabrication out of thin air.” It was the second time Google had blamed Chinese-based sources for attacking its services, and security experts say dozens of other companies, such as Yahoo and Microsoft, have been affected by similar attacks.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a news conference Thursday that Google’s allegations are “very serious” and that the FBI is investigating.
White House officials have said government e-mail systems weren’t breached, but it is unclear whether any of the material the hackers obtained contains sensitive information.
The company said the episode doesn’t mean Gmail is more vulnerable than other corporate or government e-mail systems. Google’s e-mail and other services are called “cloud” applications because they reside on multiple servers located around the world and are accessed through the Internet.
“Account hijacking occurs on all major Internet services, but Google continues to offer new security protections that influence other efforts across the industry,” a Google spokesman wrote in an e-mail. “The cloud is not to blame.”
But the rising use of cloud-based services by government officials and even journalists raises new issues about access to information.
Journalists routinely take notes on cloud-based applications, such as Gmail and Google Docs. If a reporter stores information from a government source on a cloud service hosted by Google or Microsoft, a court would not have to subpoena the journalist to get hold of the documents — it could subpoena Google or Microsoft.
“Any information on Gmail can be requisitioned through the appropriate legal process,” said Joshua Gruenspecht, a cybersecurity fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Press secretary Jay Carney said in a briefing that White House employees are instructed to conduct all work using government accounts as part of the Presidential Records Act.
But government employees, including those in the White House, can have personal e-mail accounts.
“If you’re talking about private use, that’s just different from work use,” Carney said. “I’m not aware of any law or rule that suggests that government workers cannot have separate private e-mail accounts.”
Staff writer Ellen Nakashima contributed to this report. Wan reported from Beijing.
[washingtonpost]
The most challenging yet potentially most profitable part of alternative energy –- making fuel for cars and trucks -– is attracting attention from a mainstream fuel supplier and a trash hauler.
Enerkem, a Montreal company that makes ethanol from old utility poles and household garbage, will announce Wednesday that a major independent oil refiner, Valero, has made its first investment in the company, and Waste Management, a trash-hauling company is raising its stake. With $60 million in new financing, total investment in Enerkem will reach $130 million.
Vincent Chornet, the president and chief executive of Enerkem, would not say when the Edmonton plant would open, but added, “We’re on site, and things are moving ahead very well.’’
In Edmonton, the company has a 25-year contract to accept municipal solid waste, which means anything a household throws out. After separating out recyclable materials, it shreds the waste and heats it to around 400 degrees Celsius, or about 750 degrees Fahrenheit.
At that temperature, the waste gives off a gas that includes hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Enerkem scrubs out the impurities, including carbon dioxide, and runs the gas over a catalyst, which converts it to methanol. The methanol can be turned into ethanol or a variety of other chemical feedstocks.
Starting up requires burning some natural gas or propane, but once running, the gasification process produces excess heat that can be used to boil water and make electricity.
Many companies are trying to use waste materials to make ethanol. Almost all of them pay for the raw materials, but Enerkem is paid to dispose of the garbage, making its feedstock “cost-negative,” in the company’s phrase.
Another help, at least for the time being, is the increase in gasoline prices to nearly $4 a gallon. And the product meets the federal definition of an advanced cellulosic biofuel, meaning a fuel that comes from plant material but not from food. That makes it eligible for a quota that fuel distributors must meet.
And making ethanol from garbage entails sharply lower carbon dioxide emissions than making it from corn does. Corn ethanol needs large amounts of natural gas, but the Enerkem process relies on the heat given off by the process itself so that no fossil fuels are burned except during the start-up. What is more, trash turned into fuel is trash that is not buried in a landfill, where it can give off methane, itself a potent global warming gas.
But the road to renewable motor fuels is not without potholes. Range Fuels of Broomfield, Colo., opened a pilot plant near Denver for converting wood chips to alcohols and then started building a commercial-scale plant near Soperton, Ga. But early this year it shut down the Soperton plant because it was unable to make it work right. Range, like Enerkem, uses heat and catalysts.
Iogen of Ottawa, Canada, has been running a pilot plant for years that makes ethanol from wheat straw. The company, which makes enzymes for various industrial uses and which was trying to expand into the fuels business, has a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell to make motor fuel.
But even with that backing, it announced in September that it was exploring “strategic alternatives for enhancing shareholder value and funding the deployment of its world leading renewable energy technology,’’ which is business-speak for looking for a buyer or at least a major new partner.
Valero, meanwhile, has already put money into companies that want to make gasoline components from algae, and diesel fuel substitutes from animal fat.
Enerkem has chosen a low-risk route, using a “conventional off-the-shelf catalyst,’’ said Mr. Chornet, the company president. While the catalyst, made of copper and zinc, turns out methanol, not ethanol, it can be converted, he said, and the company has mastered the trick of turning the trash into very pure gas with precisely the right ratio of carbon monoxide to hydrogen, two to one.
An earlier version of this post mischaracterized Valero’s investment history with Enerkem. Valero is not raising its investment; this is its first investment in Enerkem.
[nytimes]
Search and rescue efforts were under way early Thursday after tornadoes cut a path of destruction through western Massachusetts, killing at least four people and destroying a number of homes and buildings, state officials and witnesses reported.
Officials were investigating reports that up to four tornadoes touched down Wednesday in and around Springfield, the third-largest city in Massachusetts.
At least one person was killed in Springfield, two in nearby Westfield and one in Brimfield, about 20 miles east, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick told reporters Wednesday night.
Fire and police crews were going house-to-house, building-to-building looking for victims and survivors, said Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno.
One thousand National Guard soldiers have been ordered to Springfield to assist in search efforts, Patrick said.
As many as 19 communities reported tornado damage by Wednesday night, Patrick said. The governor declared a state of emergency as the storm system that spawned those twisters moved east, with watches posted all the way to the Atlantic coast until late Wednesday.
"It's been particularly devastating in downtown Springfield," Patrick said.
Just outside Springfield in the community of Monson, resident Dolly Opper said state police were setting up roadblocks around the town, and a neighbor described the town's center as "war zone."
"I haven't been home," she said. "The steeple's off the church across the street. It's lying right in the front yard."
Springfield, Monson, Westfield and seven other towns -- Agawam, Charlton, Oxford, Palmer, Sturbridge, West Springfield and Wilbraham -- reported severe damage, said Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Michael Popovics.
CHELSEA — A former Israeli soldier stood in a Chelsea exercise studio, calmly showing a room full of civilians which body parts are the most vulnerable to attack — the eyes, nose, ears, jaw, throat, knee, pubic bones, Achilles tendon and the groin.
There was only one problem with the class full of would-be combatants — it didn't have enough women to suit Krav Maga instructor Matan Gavish.
"Women are taught that they have to be gentle and kind," said Gavish, 29, a former Israeli Special Ops soldier who runs the 5,000 square foot Krav Maga Academy at 25 W. 26th St.
"The hardest thing in Krav Maga is to transform yourself from an educated, well-mannered person into a super-aggressive, super-destructive being."
Gavish's Level I Krav Maga classes teach students the Israeli combat system that he describes as a brutally-efficient combination of martial arts and self defense techniques.
And while his classes are already packed to capacity, Gavish has been trying to get the word out to attract more women to his class, since they're outnumbered two to one by men.
Gavish said he firmly believes the program holds more value for the feminine set — helping them to inflict "maximum damage in minimal time" on would-be muggers, kidnappers, rapists and other trouble makers.
But showing up, he acknowledged, can be intimidating.
One of the women who has made that leap is Stephanie Montrallo, a 5-foot, 2 1/2-inch grants manager who recalled head-locking strangers during her first class. She has been fighting now for months, she said, because the atmosphere, at once daunting, has helped her build confidence.
"It's physically challenging and mentally challenging," said Montrallo, 29. "It's getting over that psychological barrier — if you're going to get attacked, you can't wait."
Gavish has taught the defense moves to U.S. Navy Seals and Army Rangers, private security firms, the NYPD's Tactical Training Unit and other law enforcement personnel.
He decided to expand his classes to include New Yorkers of all shapes and sizes, in hopes of helping them get into the right mindset to defend themselves.
"You make yourself crazier than the guy who is trying to hurt you," added Gavish, who's also a graduate of Psychology at Columbia University.
Another female student, environmental specialist Jennifer Chernowski, 35, said the sparring moves she's picked up impressed even her Apache helicopter pilot ex-boyfriend.
Key lessons she's learned, Chernowski said, include acting against many typical defense instincts. If someone grabbed her arm, for example, she now knows it's smarter to jab forward than try to yank it away.
"I know that if something happened — I know at least I'd have a fighting shot as opposed to feeling helpless," Chernowski said.
Yes, Angry Birds is now officially everywhere. Streaming video set-top box maker Roku has announced that it’s partnering with Rovio to bring Angry Birds to televisions this summer.
The company says that it will offer all three current Angry Birds games (the original, Rio and Seasons) on a new product this summer, launch an Angry Birds video channel, and it will also sell merchandise for the series via its store channel. Roku is also looking at the partnership as the first step towards offering other popular casual games on its devices.
Roku is still being cagey about its casual gaming plans for its current and older generation players — the big problem there being that Roku’s current remote control isn’t suited to game playing at all. There also aren’t any details about the company’s next-generation player plans, but you can expect at least one model to come with some sort of gaming controller.
Rovio previously announced that it will be bringing Angry Birds to game consoles, and it’s already available on the PSP (in a version that’s also playable on the PS3). But Roku maintains that it’s delivering the first true Angry Birds TV experience.
Japan may still be recovering from earthquake-related woes, but that’s not stopping Panasonic and eight partner companies from pushing ahead with their own rebuilding effort that could reshape the way future cities and towns are built. Part demonstration initiative and part reclamation project, Panasonic and friends are turning the footprint of one of the company’s former factory sites into a 47-acre, 1,000-home “smart town” with energy- and eco-conscious considerations leading the development.
But the idea here isn’t to create a town stripped to the bare minimum energy usage. Rather, by building the “Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town”--Fujisawa City in Kanagawa Prefecture being the larger urban area here--with next-gen power-generating and power-saving infrastructure from the ground up, the companies plan to show just how green a town can be when various technologies are stacked together and work in unison.
As such, Fujisawa SST won’t necessarily be home to never-before-seen, cutting-edge technologies, but to a variety of common green tech staples that, despite their availability, are expensive to retrofit into older buildings and towns.
For instance, every roof structure will be embedded with modern solar panel technology that both powers the house and banks unused energy in a home-based storage battery. Transportation infrastructure will be designed with electric vehicles in mind. Networked sensors all over town will control things like public lighting, ensuring wattage doesn’t go to waste via a local smart grid.
Basically, Fujisawa SST is envisioned as a bottom-up approach to energy efficiency--a green village built from scratch with modern green technologies rather than less-efficient older tech. Panasonic wants to use it as a template for other larger communities in Japan and elsewhere. If all goes as planned, Fujisawa SST will start receiving residents in March of 2014 and finish filling up its houses by 2018.
Will Smith died? Well at least according to the internet, who claimed he was killed this weekend.
The story appeared on FakeAWish.com and claimed that the former Fresh Prince star took a tumble for the worst from a New Zealand cliff. According to the Village Voice, the incident involved the Kauri Cliffs.
The report went viral and circulated Twitter. The report read:
“Actor Will Smith died while filming a movie in New Zealand early this morning – May 30, 2011. Preliminary reports from New Zealand Police officials indicate that the actor fell more than 60 feet to his death on the Kauri Cliffs while on-set. Specific details are not yet available. The accident occurred at approximately 4:30 a.m. (UTC/GMT +12).”
New Zealand was also the place an “alive” Tupac was reported this weekend. Earlier, PBS reported that the dead rapper, Tupac Shakur was spotted alive (He died in Las Vegas in 1996.) and well in a New Zealand resort. The claim would later become revealed as the work of hackers.
The title of the story was, “Tupac Still Alive In New Zealand,” and the phony story popped up on a PBS site “PBS NewsHour” which is produced by WETA-TV in Virginia. PBS later took down the story and confirmed that the website was hacked. The story read:
“Prominent rapper Tupac has been found alive and well in a small resort in New Zealand, locals report. The small town- unnamed due to security risks- allegedly housed Tupac and Biggie Smalls(another rapper) for several years. One local, David File, recently passed away, leaving evidence and reports of Tupac’s visit in a diary, which he requested be shipped to his family in the United States.”
This is the one instance where internet pranksters have given “life” to a dead celebrity. More popular, it seems, jokesters kill celebrities off, online at least. It has happened for almost as long as the internet was around. Will Smith’s son was even the victim of an internet killing.
The right air conditioner can make all the difference on a hot, humid day. As the weather heats up, Haier is ready with a selection of window and portable air conditioners to make the long summer days and hot summer nights more comfortable. Take a moment to assess particular cooling needs in order to choose the best air conditioner for a space.
Q: What is the difference between a portable and window air conditioner?
A: Portable air conditioners are great for use in smaller, enclosed areas like bedrooms or offices where local cooling is required. By choosing spot cooling, consumers can save on energy and operation costs. These units are very efficient and reliable, and they have the benefit of mobility. Many units are set on casters allow the units to be easily rolled from room to room as needed. Portable units remove hot air from the room and must be vented out of a window so the hot air is released. The window exhaust kit included with Haier models makes this process quick and simple. Check out this video to learn how to install a portable AC unit such as a Commercial Cool unit.
With models that run from 5,000 BTUs through 24,000 BTUs, and most are ENERGY STAR® qualified, so it's easy to find a Haier air conditioning unit that’s perfect for each room in the home. The ESA406K and ESA412K were both rated as best buys by a leading consumer magazine.
ENERGY STAR qualified room air conditioners use about 10% less energy than conventional models, which could mean a savings of more than $60 over the lifetime of the unit.
Q: What size air conditioner is right for my room?
It’s important to choose an air conditioner with adequate BTUs for the size of the space. Two few BTUs can result in insufficient cooling, and even having too many BTUs can negatively affect cooling performance. The size of the space being cooled is the most important aspect to consider, but other factors such as the number of people normally occupying a room, and sources of additional heat like windows should also be taken into account
Window AC’s
BTUs/ Sq Ft/ Approx. Room Dimensions
5,000/ 100 - 150/ 10' x 12'
6,000/ 150 - 250/ 10' x 20'
8,000/ 250 - 350/ 15' x 20'
10,000/ 350 - 450/ 18' x 22'
12,000/ 450 - 550/ 20' x 25'
15,000/ 550 - 700/ 20' x 30'
18,000/ 700- 1000/ 22' x 40'
24,000/ 1000 - 1500/ 25' x 50'
Portable AC’s
BTUs/ Sq Ft/ Approx. Room Dimensions
8,000/ 150 - 250/ 10' x 20'
10,000/ 250 - 350/ 15' x 20'
12,000/ 350 - 450/ 18' x 22'
14,000/ 400 - 500/ 18’ x 25'
Tips- If more than two people normally occupy a room, add 600 BTU’s for each additional person.
If a room is very sunny, increase BTU’s by 10%, if it is shady, decrease BTU’s by 10%.
If the unit is for a kitchen, increase by 4,000 BTU’s.
A new teaser trailer for David Fincher’s upcoming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has hit the web. The highly anticipated English-language film adaptation of Steig Larsson’s hit trilogy isn’t slated to hit theaters until December, however, it appears the viral campaign is already taking off.
The teaser, which hit YouTube over the weekend, is purportedly from Europe, where it was allegedly covertly recorded inside a movie theater. After viewing the teaser, however, we echo The Hollywood Reporter’s contention that this isn’t a covert cam job, but part of a greater viral marketing strategy.
Consider the facts:
The trailer contains a red-band MPAA advisory notice before it starts. That’s all well and good, except the MPAA is an American organization, thus, why would that notice be displayed in Europe?
The video footage is off-center and designed to look as if it has been taken inside a theater, however, the sound is clear, and the picture remains in focus.
The washed out colors, apparently a result of “recording inside theater” look post-processed. Take it from someone who has seen hundreds of shaky-camera trailer recordings — this was a professional.
The angles and framing for the final bit of the teaser that starts with “Columbia Pictures” is just too perfect. Moreover, the black levels in the titles match the so-called theater frames perfectly.
For what it’s worth, the website dragontattoo.com, which is promoted in the teaser, currently just redirects to Sony’s official website.
We’re going to go on record and call this a cleverly branded viral video. We can’t wait to watch how the campaign develops, especially as the film nears release.
A trailer for Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm — the second episode of Activision-Blizzard’s massively popular real-time strategy (RTS) game franchise — found its way onto the Internet over the weekend and has appeared on video streaming site YouTube.
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, the latest from Blizzard’s insanely popular Starcraft franchise, will probably be one of the most highly anticipated games of this year or next — although no release date has been announced yet. A leaked trailer means the game could be close to being finished — and it could mean that other real-time strategy (RTS) game makers either need to step up their game or plan a different release date to effectively compete with Blizzard’s behemoth RTS franchise.
The trailer includes references to Sarah Kerrigan, one of the main nemeses in the original Starcraft game. Kerrigan was a member of the Zerg, an insect-like alien race that swarms and tries to spread across the galaxy like a virus. She was originally a powerful member of the Terran army — the equivalent of humans in the Starcraft universe — and a psychic before being converted into a human-Zerg hybrid. That first episode of Starcraft sold millions of copies and is still widely played today.
Heart of the Swarm is the second of three episodes planned for the Starcraft II trilogy. The first episode — Wings of Liberty — came out in August last year. Blizzard chief executive Mike Morhaime said gamers could expect more details about Heart of the Swarm in the next few weeks during the company’s earnings call on May 9 — meaning Activision-Blizzard could be poised to make an announcement about the game during the Electronic Entertainment Expo convention in the second week of June.
You can view a full version of the trailer for Heart of the Swarm below.
Sean Kingston was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami Sunday night after he crashed into a bridge while riding his personal watercraft.
Local 10 News in Miami, Florida is reporting that around 6 p.m. ET the “Beautiful Girls” singer and a female passenger crashed into the bridge which connects Miami’s Palm Island to the MacArthur Causeway.
Miami Fire Rescue crews responded to the scene and rushed Kingston to Jackson memorial where he is now. A spokesman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told Local 10 that Kingston and his female passenger “needed medical attention.”
According to Local 10 News the cause of the crash is still under investigation, but thus far it doesn't seem that alcohol played a part in the accident.
TMZ is reporting that Kingston is being treated in the trauma ward and is in critical condition. MTV has not been able to confirm this information.
An unnamed rep for the singer issued this statement to TMZ: "Sean Kingston was in an accident today. No further details are available at the moment. He and his family thank everyone for the well-wishes."
Sean Kingston bursted onto the music scene in 2007 with his hit-record “Beautiful Girls” off of his self-titled gold-selling debut. In 2009, he released his sophomore album Tomorrow which was led by the RedOne produced single “Fire Burning.” In February he dropped his King of Kingz mixtape and was currently working on his third as-yet-untitled LP.
