By Bob Bryan

Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Treasury secretary, says the top priority of the new Trump administration will be to cut taxes. Mnuchin, a longtime Goldman Sachs employee and Hollywood producer, said his support of Trump cost him a few friends along the way. "There were a lot of people in California and New York who wanted to stop being friends," Mnuchin said. Both states were won by Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

"Our first priority is to cut taxes," Mnuchin said in an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box. "We want to cut the corporate taxes, which will bring back growth." During the interview, which also included Trump's choice for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, Mnuchin described a plan to cut the corporate tax rate to 15% from its current 35% level.

On personal taxes, Mnuchin said the planned tax cut from the Trump administration would not favor the upper class because any cut for the wealthy would be offset by "closing various exceptions" in the tax code. He did not specify what these would be but did say the "absolute level" of upper-class taxes would not go down.

Mnuchin said the changes in the tax codes would be the largest changes since those under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaks during ACI Lebanon Golden Jubilee Grand Celebration, in Beirut September 1, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Beirut- Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh affirmed that Lebanon has completed required legislation regarding digital security. He said that Lebanon considers – combating money laundering and fighting funding terrorism – a priority and therefore participating through its private and public sectors in this field.

Salameh made the call in his address to the 2nd Anti-Cyber-crime Forum themed “Fighting Digital Fraud and Piracy in the Banking and Commercial Sectors in Lebanon.”

The event is organized by Al Iktissad Wal-Aamal group, in collaboration with Special Investigation Commission (SIC) of the Central Bank of Lebanon and the Cybercrime and the Intellectual Property Bureau of the Directorate General of the Internal Security Forces.

Governor Riad Salameh said that the cyber-crime has been worrying governments and monitoring bodies – since they are suspected to be linked to terrorism. “These crimes have increased throughout the past three years,” secretary general of the central bank’s SIC Abdul-Hafeez Mansour told the forum.

Damascus (dpa) - Israeli planes fired two rockets at the outskirts of Damascus early Wednesday, state media reported, citing a Syrian military source. The planes fired the rockets from Lebanese airspace into the Sabora area, the state-run Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported.

Earlier in the day, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a pro-Syrian regime website said loud blasts, believed to be the result of Israeli airstrikes, rocked areas west of the Syrian capital. "We believe they are Israeli strikes ... carried out from over the Lebanese territories and hit a Syrian post in the area of Sabora on the outskirts of Damascus," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said. 

Reports about the airstrikes have been contradictory. The pro-Syrian regime website Dimashq al-An [Damascus Now] said that four loud explosions were heard along Damascus‘ outskirts a little after midnight. The website reported that the blasts were the result of "an aerial Zionist aggression" which targeted a Syrian post on the Beirut-Damascus highway and resulted in no loss of life. Israel hasn‘t confirmed the attacks. Two raids took place, one hitting an arms depot, the pro-Hezbollah Mullhak website reported, citing its own sources.

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