Trump lays out defense hike plans

Deep cuts proposed elsewhere as president unveils budget blueprint

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled the administration's first budget blueprint which seeks deep cuts across federal departments and agencies in order to fund rising military spending.

The blueprint provides lawmakers and the public with a view of the priorities of the Trump administration, with focus on "rebuilding and restoring our nation's security", said Mick Mulvaney, Director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget, in a statement on Thursday.

The proposal is the Trump administration's blueprint at translating some of the president's campaign promises into numbers. It is aimed at improving government efficiency and cutting burdensome regulations.

In this "America First" Budget, the administration calls for big cuts at federal governments and agencies which would eliminate entire programs and scale back the size of federal employees for fiscal year 2018 which starts from Oct 1.

The budget proposes $10.1 billion or 28 percent of reduction from fiscal 2017 in the foreign aid programs at the State Department, the US Agency for International Development and the Treasury Department's International Programs.

The departments of commerce, agriculture, education, energy, health and human services would all see major cuts. The Environmental Protection Agency will see its spending cut by $2.6 billion or 31.4 percent from fiscal 2017.

In order to strengthen the US military and its border security, the proposal requests $52.3 billion or 10 percent increase for Defense Department and $2.8 billion or 6.8 percent increase for Homeland Security Department.

The budget proposal will be released in May, Mulvaney said.

The proposal is expected to be met with resistance on the Congress. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi opposed the proposal, saying that "throwing billions at defense while ransacking America's investments in jobs, education, clean energy and lifesaving medical research will leave our nation weakened".

Many Republicans have also opposed the steep cuts at the State Department.

In addition, Senate rules require 60 votes to pass the annual appropriations bills that set each federal department's spending levels. Republicans control 52 Senate seats, which means that Trump will need support from Democrats to advance his spending proposal.

Xinhua-Reuters-AP

'46 dead' in US mosque strike

The US said it carried out an airstrike in Syria against an al-Qaida meeting but denied deliberately targeting a mosque where observers said on Friday 46 people were killed.

Observers said most of the dead in the Thursday evening raid on Al-Jineh, in the northern province of Aleppo, were civilians.

The US-led coalition has been bombing extremist groups in war-torn Syria since 2014, with hundreds of civilians unintentionally killed in the country and in neighboring Iraq.

"We did not target a mosque, but the building that we did target - which was where the meeting took place - is about 15 meters from a mosque that is still standing," said Colonel John J. Thomas, spokesman for US Central Command.

AFP-Reuters