Brooklyn Diocese fires music teacher after same-sex wedding
The Brooklyn Diocese fired a Catholic music school teacher in Queens after he married a man, saying he violated a contractual stipulation to the Catholic Church.
Matthew LaBanca, a teacher at St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy in Astoria and a music director at Corpus Christi Church, was fired Oct. 13 after diocese officials learned he had married a man in August, the Daily News of New York reported Monday.
LaBanca said a community member reported his wedding date to the diocese, and that high-ranking officials met for two months to discuss whether he should be fired.
LaBanca said Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, the soon-to-retire leader of the Brooklyn Diocese, was responsible for his termination.
In a statement, school and church officials said LaBanca was fired because he violated a part of his contract that said teachers must “support and exemplify by his/her public conduct Catholic doctrine and morality.”
Iran says cyberattack closes gas stations across country
A cyberattack crippled gas stations across Iran on Tuesday, leaving angry motorists stranded in long lines.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which rendered useless the government-issued electronic cards that many Iranians use to buy subsidized fuel at the pump.
It bore similarities to another attack months earlier that seemed to directly challenge Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the country’s economy buckles under American sanctions. Those economic problems worsen as the U.S. and Iran have yet to jointly reenter Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers.
State television quoted an unnamed official in the country’s National Security Council acknowledging the cyberattack, hours after it aired images of long lines of cars waiting to fill up in Tehran. Associated Press journalists also saw lines of cars at Tehran gas stations, with the pumps off and the station closed.
Sudan general: PM detained in coup held for his own safety
Sudan’s ruling general said Tuesday the prime minister he deposed in a coup was being held for his own safety and would likely be released soon. But he warned that other members of the dissolved government could face trial as protests against the putsch continued in the streets.
A day after the military seized power in a move widely denounced by the international community, pro-democracy demonstrators blocked roads in the capital with makeshift barricades and burning tires. Troops fired on crowds a day earlier, killing four protesters, according to doctors.
The takeover came after weeks of mounting tensions between military and civilian leaders over the course and the pace of Sudan’s transition to democracy.
Heavy rain soaks New York as nor’easter pounds the region
With officials and residents readying for the worst after disastrous storms this summer, the New York City region found itself Tuesday in the throes of a menacing early season nor’easter that brought heavy rains, high winds and the threat of flash floods to a region scarred by intense summer weather.
As much as 3 inches of rain had already fallen on parts of New York and New Jersey, according to the National Weather Service.