Saudi Arabia becomes 1st Arab country to get FATF membership
Riyadh, June 22: Saudi Arabia has become the first Arab country to be granted full membership of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) following the group''s annual general meeting in the US.
The kingdom''s accession came as the global money laundering watchdog celebrated the 30th anniversary of its first meeting held in Paris in 1989, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Saudi Arabia which had received an invitation from the FATF at the beginning of 2015 to join as an "observer member", was admitted into the organization after the group''s meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Friday.
Saudi Arabia had been a founding member of the MENA arm of the group since November 2004, and its full membership came after it was reported the kingdom had made "tangible progress" and for its efforts in implementing the FATF''s guidelines.
The group is responsible for issuing international standards, policies and best practices to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation.
With the kingdom becoming a FATF member, the number of permanent members in the group is now 39.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee moves SC against SIR
New Delhi (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state, sources said on Sunday.
The petition names the Election Commission (EC) and the chief electoral officer of West Bengal as respondents. It was filed before the apex court on January 28, the sources said.
Banerjee arrived in Delhi on Sunday. She is scheduled to meet Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at 4 pm on Monday to discuss the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo would be accompanied by a delegation of party leaders.
She is also likely to meet party MPs in the Parliament House on Monday.
Talking to reporters at the Kolkata airport before leaving for the national capital, Banerjee claimed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre is resorting to the SIR exercise because it is certain of its imminent defeat in the West Bengal Assembly polls, due in a few months, and said the saffron party should contest the election politically and democratically.
The West Bengal chief minister has written several letters to the CEC, raising concerns over the conduct of the exercise.
In her most recent letter to the CEC on January 31, she alleged that the methodology and approach of the exercise went beyond the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the relevant rules, causing "immense inconvenience and agony" to citizens.
Earlier, TMC leaders, including Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen, had moved the apex court, challenging certain aspects of how the SIR is being carried out in West Bengal.
