US lawsuit against Qatari emir’s brother to be re-filed in Massachusetts court

Qatari Sheikh Khaled Al-Thani is facing charges he threatened to kill two former American employees who refused his orders to murder a critic. (Photo supplied)
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Updated 28 January 2020
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US lawsuit against Qatari emir’s brother to be re-filed in Massachusetts court

  • The move was intended to force Sheikh Khaled, who had been avoiding being served, to acknowledge and accept legal service
  • Two former contractors alleged they were denied wages and threatened by Sheikh Khaled after they refused his orders to kill two people

The attorney for two former contractors suing Sheikh Khaled Al-Thani, the brother of the Emir of Qatar, has asked a Florida Federal Court judge to dismiss their lawsuit so they can re-file the claims before a different Federal court in Massachusetts.

The former contractors alleged they were denied wages and threatened by Sheikh Khaled after they refused his orders to kill two people. The original lawsuit had Sheikh Khaled as the principle defendant but on Nov. 5, 2019 it was expanded to include race car company Al-Anabi Racing USA LLC, which Sheikh Khaled owns.

The move was intended to force Sheikh Khaled, who had been avoiding being served, to acknowledge and accept legal service.

Failing to serve a defendant or a defendant’s business assets can result in the lawsuit being thrown out by a judge in the American judicial system.

The expansion of the lawsuit worked. After ignoring the lawsuit for more than seven months, lawyers for both Sheikh Khaled and Al-Anabi Racing USA LLC, filed responses. They asked the Federal Court on Jan. 2 this year to dismiss the Pittard/Allende lawsuit, arguing Florida lacked Federal jurisdiction over the case.

According to Bloomberg Markets, Al-Anabi Racing USA LLC, is based in Duxbury, Massachusetts, although it has an office in Florida.

“After the Pittard case complaint was amended, several individuals bravely stepped forward to share their stories and experiences with the defendants in the Pittard case,” said Rebecca Castaneda, the attorney for security professional Matthew Pittard and paramedic Matthew Allende, who are seeking $33 million in damages.

“In light of the information that they have provided, and the new plaintiffs’ claims and causes of actions against the defendants and others, we have requested that the Pittard case be dismissed from the Middle District of Florida.

“The cases of Matthew Pittard and Matthew Allende will be supplemented with additional legal claims and information that has been obtained and re-filed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the District of Massachusetts.”

Sheikh Khaled’s attorney, Alejandro Soto, of the Florida law firm Fridman Fels and Soto, PLLC, argued in their motion to dismiss in January that Sheikh Khaled had no legal presence in Florida and that Florida’s Federal courts had no jurisdiction over his actions.

“While the amended complaint invokes Florida law, it otherwise fails to allege any facts supporting Sheikh Khaled’s contacts with the state,” Soto said in his Jan. 2 dismissal demand.

“By all accounts — including plaintiffs’— Sheikh Khaled is a citizen of the state of Qatar whose domicile and primary residence — both during the time period alleged in the amended complaint and now — have always been in Qatar.

“Moreover, the amended complaint does not allege a single fact suggesting that any of the alleged conduct giving rise to this case occurred in or arose from Sheikh Khaled’s contacts with Florida. Indeed, the only alleged connection that Florida has with this case is plaintiff Matthew Pittard’s alleged residence in it.”

Attorneys for Al-Anabi Racing LLC, Armando Rosquete and Javier A. Reyes of the Bell Rosquete Reyes Esteban, PLLC law firm, argued that Sheikh Khaled was not employed by Al-Anabi Racing USA LLC and claimed Florida lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.

“Contrary to this settled jurisdictional jurisprudence, plaintiffs failed to plead any facts to establish personal jurisdiction or even provide a factual framework under which this court could analyse personal jurisdiction,” Reyes and Rosquete said in their Jan. 2 dismissal demand.

“Indeed, other than an unsupported conclusory allegation in a single paragraph, plaintiffs include no jurisdictional facts that connect Al-Anabi to Florida. Plaintiffs do not allege that they were injured in Florida, nor do they allege any facts regarding Al-Anabi’s contacts with the state.

“The amended complaint is devoid of facts that could — even when analysed in the light most favorable to plaintiffs — show that the purported injury or other conduct alleged even occurred in Florida,” Reyes and Rosquete added.

Attorneys Reyes, Rosquete and Soto all failed to respond to repeated inquiries for comment on their dismissal filings.

Pittard and Allende alleged in the lawsuit, originally filed on July 23, 2019 before Federal Judge Thomas P. Barber, that Sheikh Khaled ordered them to kill two individuals who posted negative and embarrassing comments about the sheikh on social media.

According to Castaneda, Sheikh Khaled ordered the killing of a Los Angeles-based drug dealer who was trying to blackmail the sheikh with claims he had compromising photos and videos of the sheikh.

“We don’t know the veracity of the drug dealer’s claims, but the sheikh took them seriously and he wanted Pittard and Allende to kill the blackmailer,” Castaneda said.

In another case, Castaneda said Sheikh Khaled allegedly ordered the two security contractors to murder a Moroccan woman who was a friend of the sheikh’s wife. Castaneda said Sheikh Khaled feared the woman was feeding embarrassing information about him to a Saudi national at a time when his brother, Emir Al-Thani, and Qatar were in an international row with Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries.

Pittard and Allende allege they were threatened at gunpoint by an angry Sheikh Khaled when they refused his orders in September 2017 to murder the two individuals he suspected had sullied his social reputation. The lawsuit claims Sheikh Khaled's threats against Pittard and Allende continued to escalate.


Preventive power cuts introduced in Ukraine following a massive Russian missile attack

Updated 6 sec ago
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Preventive power cuts introduced in Ukraine following a massive Russian missile attack

  • Ukraine’s air force detected multiple missile groups launched by Russia during a nationwide air-raid alert
KYIV: Russia launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine on Wednesday, forcing the country to introduce preventive power cuts, the Ukrainian energy minister said.
“The enemy continues to terrorize Ukrainians,” Herman Halushchenko wrote on Facebook, urging residents to stay in shelters during the ongoing threat and follow official updates.
The state energy company Ukrenergo reported emergency power outages in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kirovohrad regions.
Russian forces launched missile strikes targeting energy infrastructure in the western Lviv region early Wednesday, said the city’s mayor, Andrii Sadovyi.
“During the morning attack, enemy cruise missiles were recorded in the region,” he said.
No casualties or damage were reported.
Ukraine’s air force detected multiple missile groups launched by Russia during a nationwide air-raid alert, though initial reports indicated no damage.
Wednesday’s attack has further exacerbated the strain on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which has been a frequent target during the nearly three-year-old war.

Suspected outbreak of Marburg virus kills eight in Tanzania, WHO says

Updated 15 January 2025
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Suspected outbreak of Marburg virus kills eight in Tanzania, WHO says

  • The viral hemorrhagic fever has a fatality rate as high as 88 percent, and is from the same virus family as the one responsible for Ebola

NAIROBI: A suspected outbreak of the Marburg virus in northwest Tanzania has infected nine people, killing eight of them, the World Health Organization has said, weeks after an outbreak of the disease was declared over in neighboring Rwanda.
The viral hemorrhagic fever has a fatality rate as high as 88 percent, and is from the same virus family as the one responsible for Ebola, which is transmitted to people from fruit bats which are endemic to that part of East Africa.
The WHO said it received reliable reports of suspected cases in the Kagera region of Tanzania on Jan. 10, with symptoms of headache, high fever, back pain, diarrhea, vomiting blood, muscle weakness and finally external bleeding.
Samples from two patients were awaiting testing at Tanzania’s national laboratory for confirmation of the outbreak, WHO said in a statement on Tuesday.
The patients’ contacts, including health care workers, have been identified and were being followed up, WHO reported.
The outbreak in Rwanda, which shares a border with Tanzania’s Kagera region, infected 66 people and killed 15 before it was declared over on December 20.
Marburg virus can spread between people through direct contact or via blood and other bodily fluids of infected people, including contaminated bedding or clothing.
An outbreak in the Kagera region in March 2023 killed six people and lasted for nearly two months.


‘Not for the poor’: Indonesians in capital face housing, commute woes

Updated 15 January 2025
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‘Not for the poor’: Indonesians in capital face housing, commute woes

JAKARTA: Scrolling on social media, Indonesian moviegoer Jessica Sihotang stumbled across a film depicting a fellow woman in her 30s struggling to make the dream of buying a Jakarta home a reality.
Nearly two million like-minded Indonesians tuned in to watch the protagonist’s house-hunting journey when “Home Sweet Loan” was released last year, the movie’s producer said.
Residents of the megalopolis of 11 million are finding it impossible to climb the property ladder, as space shrinks and prices rise, forcing them to seek faraway homes that come with arduous commutes.
The movie sparked widespread chatter among Jakartans, as its main character’s grievances resonated with their own long-held housing woes.
“I can relate so much. I’ve been thinking about it for the past 10 years,” said Sihotang.
“I want to have my own house, but my savings have never been enough even just for the down payment,” added the 35-year-old university admissions worker.
Jakarta is where Indonesia’s growing wealth gap is most evident — with unofficial slum housing sitting below shiny new apartment complexes and skyscrapers.
Less than two-thirds of Jakartans own a home, according to Indonesia’s Central Statistics Bureau, the lowest figure compared to other provinces.
Sihotang said she cannot afford a home within 60 kilometers (37 miles) of her job.
“I have to find side hustles for additional income, or maybe try my luck for a few years abroad” before buying a property, she said.
The price of a Jakarta house is on average 20 times higher than an employee’s annual salary, a University of Indonesia survey in June found.

DAILY COMMUTE
Jakartans like Rizqi Arifuddin have resorted to buying a house in neighboring provinces.
The office worker in one of Jakarta’s main business districts commutes by train for an hour from his home in West Java province.
He then jumps on a motorcycle taxi for another half an hour to reach the office.
“I can never afford a house in the city. Even researching the prices makes me upset,” he said.
With limited space available in the cramped capital known for its brutal traffic jams, prices have skyrocketed.
Housing complexes are now being built further from the city to meet demand.
“This is the reality, people are now competing for places which at least have access to mass transportation,” said Yayat Supriyatna, an urban planner from Trisakti University in Jakarta.
“Jakarta is not a place for the poor,” he told AFP.

HOUSING CRISIS 
Some Indonesians like Muhammad Faris Dzaki Rahadian and his wife have chosen to rent, rather than buy, a property close to work.
“Even with our joint income, it is still not affordable,” said journalist Rahadian, 27.
“I don’t think buying is a rational option.”
To address the housing crisis, the government will require employees from 2027 to contribute three percent of their salaries to a savings fund which they can use for housing.
But it has angered Indonesians who think it won’t be enough — or that it could be taken from them by a government many distrust.
“Who’s going to benefit? It seems to me that people are getting constantly pressured,” Supriyatna said.
Despite the grim housing market, some are still holding on to their dreams.
“Having a house, no matter how small is a symbol of peace of mind for me,” Sihotang said.
“It will give me peace when I’m old.”


Dense fog over Indian capital delays flights, trains

Updated 15 January 2025
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Dense fog over Indian capital delays flights, trains

  • Delhi was ranked as the world’s most polluted city in live rankings by Swiss group IQAir

Dense fog and cold weather delayed train and flight departures in several parts of northern India, including its capital New Delhi, on Wednesday.
India’s weather office issued an orange alert for Delhi, the second highest warning level, forecasting dense to very dense fog in many areas.
Visibility at Delhi’s main airport was between zero to 100 meters (328.08 ft), the weather office said, and more than 40 trains across northern India were delayed because of fog, local media reported.
Some aircraft departures from Delhi were delayed, airport authorities said on social media platform X, warning that flights lacking the CAT III navigation system that enables landing despite low visibility would face difficulties. Delhi’s main airport handles about 1,400 flights every day.
“Low visibility and fog over Delhi may lead to some delays,” the country’s largest airline IndiGo said in a social media post.
Local media showed images of vehicles crawling along highways through the fog, and people huddled indoors as the temperature dipped to 7 degrees Celsius (44.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Delhi was ranked as the world’s most polluted city in live rankings by Swiss group IQAir on Wednesday, with a reading of 254, ranked as “very unhealthy.”
The Indian capital has been battling poor air quality and smog since the beginning of winter.


South Korean President Yoon arrested over failed martial law bid

Updated 15 January 2025
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South Korean President Yoon arrested over failed martial law bid

  • Earlier more than 3,000 police officers and anti-corruption investigators had gathered there before dawn, pushing through throngs of Yoon supporters and members of his ruling People Power Party protesting attempts to detain him

SEOUL: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested on Wednesday over his failed martial law bid, after hundreds of anti-graft investigators and police raided his residence to end a weeks-long standoff.
Yoon, who was impeached and charged with insurrection over his short-lived effort to impose martial law last month, is the first sitting president in the nation’s history to be arrested.
Hundreds of police officers and investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office had streamed up the driveway to the presidential residence before dawn on Wednesday, some scaling perimeter walls and hiking up back trails to reach the main building.
It was their second effort to arrest Yoon.
A first attempt on January 3 failed after a tense hours-long standoff with members of Yoon’s official Presidential Security Service (PSS), who refused to budge when investigators tried to execute their warrant.
Yoon’s lawyer announced on Wednesday morning the president had agreed to speak to investigators and that he had decided to leave the residence to prevent a “serious incident.”
“President Yoon has decided to personally appear at the Corruption Investigation Office today,” Seok Dong-hyeon said on Facebook, adding that Yoon would also deliver a speech.
But investigators announced shortly after that Yoon had been arrested.
“The Joint Investigation Headquarters executed an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol today (January 15) at 10:33 am (0130 GMT),” they said in a statement.
AFP reporters earlier witnessed brief scuffles at the gate, where Yoon’s die-hard supporters had been camped out to protect him, as authorities first moved on the compound.
Lawmakers from Yoon’s ruling People Power Party also rushed to the area in an apparent bid to defend him, AFP reporters saw.
His supporters were heard chanting “illegal warrant!” while waving glow sticks and South Korean and American flags. Some laid on the ground outside the residential compound’s main gate.
Police and CIO officers began forcibly removing them from the entrance to the residence while around 30 lawmakers from Yoon’s ruling People Power Party also blocked investigators, Yonhap News TV reported.
Yoon’s guards had installed barbed wire and barricades at the residence, turning it into what the opposition called a “fortress.”
Due to the tense situation, police decided not to carry firearms but only to wear bulletproof vests for the new attempt Wednesday, in case they were met by armed guards, local media reported.
Following his arrest, Yoon can be held for up to 48 hours on the existing warrant. Investigators would need to apply for another arrest warrant to keep him in custody.
Yoon’s legal team had repeatedly decried the warrant as illegal.
In a parallel probe, Yoon’s impeachment trial began Tuesday with a brief hearing after he declined to attend.
Although his failure to attend — which his team has blamed on purported safety concerns — forced a procedural adjournment, the hearings will continue without Yoon, with the next set for Thursday.