Sean Hubbard

A man was arrested following the shooting death of an 18-year-old woman in Rock Hill on Saturday night, according to the Rock Hill Police Department.

Around 11 p.m., officers responded to a home on Mount Gallan Road near US Highway 21 in regards to reported gunshots.

When police arrived, they located a woman on the ground with a gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police began an investigation and identified 34-year-old Sean Hubbard as the suspect. Hubbard was arrested and charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Hubbard was also charged with discharging a firearm into a dwelling for a previous incident where he shot into the same home, police said.

People wait to have their temperature taken in front of Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/ Hajarah Nalwadda)

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The World Health Organization declared the Ebola disease outbreak caused by a rare virus in Congo and neighboring Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.

The WHO said the outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like COVID-19, and advised against the closure of international borders.

The WHO said on X that a laboratory-confirmed case has also been reported in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, which is about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the outbreak’s epicenter in the eastern province of Ituri, suggesting a possible wider spread. It said the patient had visited Ituri and that other suspected cases have also been reported in North Kivu province, which is one of Congo’s most populous and borders Ituri.

Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.

The WHO’s emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. By the WHO’s standards, it shows the event is serious, there is a risk of international spread and it requires a coordinated international response.

The global response to previous declarations has been mixed. In 2024, when the WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.

It’s hard to treat a variant of Ebola

Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been detected.

Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in Uganda, the WHO said.

The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37. The second time was in 2012, in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.

Conflict and migration complicate effort to track outbreak

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya said Saturday that a high number of active cases remain in the community, particularly in Mongwalu, where the first cases were reported, “significantly complicating containment and contact tracing efforts.”

Violent conflict with militants, some backed by the Islamic State group, as well as constant population movement due to mining, both within Congo and across the border in Uganda, have also posed a major challenge to response efforts.

Officials first reported the spread of the disease in Ituri province, close to Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday. On Saturday, the Africa CDC reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths in Congo.

“There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event at the present time. In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The two cases in Uganda include one person whom officials said had traveled from Congo and died at a hospital in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and another the WHO said had also traveled from Congo.

The WHO said the high percentage of positive cases among samples tested, the spread to Kampala and Uganda and the clusters of deaths across Ituri “all point toward a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread.”

Congo outbreak killed 50 before it was detected

Kaseya said slow detection delayed the response and gave the virus time to spread.

“This outbreak started in April. So far, we don’t know the index case. It means we don’t know how far is the magnitude of this outbreak,” Kaseya said, using a term for the first detectable case of an epidemic.

The earliest known suspected case, a 59-year-old man, developed symptoms on April 24 and died at a hospital in Ituri on April 27.

By the time health authorities were first alerted to the outbreak via social media on May 5, 50 deaths had already been recorded, the Africa CDC said.

The WHO said at least four deaths have been reported among healthcare workers who showed Ebola symptoms.

Diagnostics and vaccines have been a major problem for Africa

Shanelle Hall, principal adviser to the head of Africa CDC, told reporters Saturday that there were four therapeutics under consideration for the Bundibugyo virus, but no vaccine was being actively considered.

A bigger issue is that even existing vaccines and therapeutics for other Ebola viruses are not manufactured in Africa. Africa’s struggle to get vaccines from richer countries during the COVID-19 pandemic spurred different efforts to accelerate its capacity to manufacture shots, but resources remain scarce.

Kaseya said the demand for a vaccine for a rare virus like Bundibugyo, which is not as deadly as the Ebola Zaire prominent in Congo’s past outbreaks, has been the recurring issue in discussions with pharmaceutical companies over vaccine manufacturing,

“If we are serious in this continent, we need to manufacture what we need,” he said. “We cannot every single day look for others to come to tell us what they are doing.”

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This image released by the Maldives President’s Media Division, shows a coast guard boat and other vessels deployed to search for the four missing Italian divers near Alimathaa Island, Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, Saturday, May 15, 2026. (Maldives President’s Media Division via AP)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Maldivian authorities on Saturday suspended the search for the bodies of four Italian divers believed to be deep inside an underwater cave, after a military diver died during a perilous mission to try to reach them.

The group of five Italian divers is believed to have died while exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 meters (160 feet) in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy’s Foreign Ministry. The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 meters (98 feet).

Maldives presidential spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef said the search was suspended after Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldivian National Defense Force, died of underwater decompression sickness after being transferred to a hospital in the capital.

Authorities are awaiting the arrival of three Finnish divers, experts in deep and cave diving, on Sunday, to rethink their search strategy, he said.

Mahudhee will be buried with military honors in a funeral attended by President Mohamed Muzzu on Saturday night. The diver was part of the group that had briefed Muizzu on the rescue plan when he visited the search site on Friday.

“The death goes to show the difficulty of the mission,” Shareef said.

Rough weather has repeatedly hampered rescue efforts.

Search operations on Saturday involved eight local divers who worked in shifts to locate the missing Italians, the Italian Foreign Ministry said. Initial teams had already dived to identify and mark the entrance to the cave system where the Italians disappeared. The cause of the deaths remains under investigation.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said everything possible would be done to bring the victims home. He offered his condolences for the death of the Maldivian diver during the rescue efforts.

The victims are described as experienced divers

The victims have been identified as Monica Montefalcone, an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; researcher Muriel Oddenino; and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, according to the Maldivian government.

Benedetti’s body was recovered on Thursday. His body was found near the mouth of the cave and authorities believed the remaining four had entered the cave.

Montefalcone and Oddenino were in the Maldives on an official scientific mission to monitor marine environments and study the effects of climate change on tropical biodiversity, the University of Genoa said in a statement Friday. However, the scuba diving activity during which the deadly accident occurred was not part of the planned research and was “undertaken privately,” it said.

The statement also said the two other victims — student Sommacal and recent graduate Gualtieri — were not involved in the scientific mission.

Carlo Sommacal, Montefalcone’s husband and Giorgia’s father, expressed doubts over the accident, saying that “something must have happened down there” given his wife and daughter’s extensive experience.

Speaking to Italian TV, he described Montefalcone as a careful and highly disciplined diver who would never put her daughter or other colleagues at risk.

Tour operator says it didn’t authorize deep dive

The Italian tour operator that manages the Maldives’ diving trip denied authorizing or knowing about the deep dive that violated local limits, its lawyer told Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Saturday.

Orietta Stella, representing Albatros Top Boat, said the operator “did not know” the group planned to descend beyond 30 meters. That threshold requires special permission from Maldivian maritime authorities and the tour operator “would have never allowed it,” she said.

The dive far exceeded what was planned for a scientific cruise focused on coral sampling at standard depths, Stella added. The victims were experienced divers, but the equipment used appeared to be standard recreational gear rather than technical equipment suited for deep cave diving, she said.

She also clarified that Albatros only marketed the cruise and neither owned the vessel nor employed the crew, which was hired locally.

Cave diving is a highly technical and dangerous activity that requires specialized training, equipment and strict safety protocols. Risks increase sharply in environments where divers cannot head straight up and at depth, particularly when conditions are poor. Experts say it’s easy to become disoriented or lost inside caves, particularly as sediment clouds can sharply reduce visibility.

Diving at 50 meters also exceeds the maximum depth recommended for recreational divers by most major established scuba certifying agencies, with depths beyond 40 meters (131 feet) considered technical diving and requiring specialized training and equipment.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said the cave is divided into three large chambers connected by narrow passages. Recovery teams explored two of the three chambers on Friday, but the search was limited due to considerations over oxygen and decompression.

Italian officials said that around 20 other Italians on the same expedition aboard the vessel “Duke of York” were safe. Italy’s embassy in Colombo was providing assistance to those onboard and had contacted the Red Crescent, which offered to deploy volunteers to help provide psychological aid.

The Maldives Tourism Ministry said it suspended the operating license of the “Duke of York” pending an investigation.