BEIRUT (AP) — Munition in an arms depot in south Lebanon exploded Saturday as army experts were dismantling them, killing six of them and wounding several others, the army said.
The incident occurred on the edge of the southern village of Zibqin in Tyre province, the army said. It added that efforts were being made to determine the cause of the blast but gave no further details. The depot is believed to have been used by the militant group Hezbollah.
The blast took place south of the Litani River in an area where Hezbollah withdrew its fighters under the terms of a ceasefire that ended a 14-month conflict with Israel in November. Over the past months, Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers have been taking over Hezbollah posts in the area.
On Thursday, the Lebanese Cabinet voted in favor of a U.S.-backed plan to disarm Hezbollah and implement a ceasefire with Israel. The Lebanese government asked the national army to prepare a plan in which only state institutions in the small nation will have weapons by the end of the year.
Hezbollah officials have said they will not disarm before Israel withdraws from five hills along the border and stops airstrikes that have killed more than 250 people since the ceasefire.
The government’s decision has angered Hezbollah and its supporters, who have been staging protests in areas where the Iran-backed group enjoys support.
The army warned in a statement Friday that it will not allow any attempts to endanger the country’s security. It warned protesters that it will not allow the closing of roads or attack private or public property.
Lebanese army soldiers carry the coffin of Mohammad Shuqair, wrapped in the national flag, during his funeral procession at the Lebanese Military Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Lebanese army soldiers carry the coffin of Mohammad Shuqair, wrapped in the national flag, during his funeral procession at the Lebanese army hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
NEW YORK (AP) — A surging stock market and a flurry of deal making padded the profits of Wall Street's two big investment banks, which both saw a double-digit jump in profits in the fourth quarter.
Goldman Sachs's net earnings rose 12% from a year earlier, posting a profit of $4.62 billion, or $14.01 a share. Meanwhile Morgan Stanley said it earned $4.4 billion, or $2.68 per share, compared to a profit of $3.71 billion, or $2.22 per share, compared to a year earlier.
Wall Street has been bolstered by the Trump administration's deregulatory policies, which has led corporations to seek out mergers and acquisitions, as well as the surge of investor interest in artificial intelligence companies and those who stand to benefit from the mass adoption of technologies like ChatGPT.
Fourth-quarter investment fee revenues over at Goldman were up 25% year-over-year and Morgan Stanley saw a 47% jump in revenue in its investment banking division. Both banks said their investment fee backlog, which is a signal of how much deal making is still pending that banks are working on, increased significantly in the fourth quarter.
Goldman and Morgan's results reflect the strong earnings out of the other big banks that reported their results this week. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup all saw jumps in fourth-quarter profits, but their results were dampened by the ongoing tensions that Wall Street is having with the White House over the issue of the independence of the Federal Reserve and President Donald Trump's interest in capping credit card interest rates at 10%.
Along with a strong investment banking performance, Goldman Sachs also agreed to sell off its Apple Card credit card portfolio to JPMorgan Chase last week, effectively exiting its brief experiment in consumer banking. The bank sold the credit card portfolio at a discount to JPMorgan, a sign of how desperately Goldman wanted to exit the business and put the Apple Card behind it.
This story has been corrected to show that Morgan Stanley's investment banking revenues rose 47%, not 22%.
FILE - Electronic signage is shown at Morgan Stanley headquarters, Thursday, March 4, 2021 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, the logo for Goldman Sachs appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
