Cairo  - A Lebanese antiquities dealer was arrested in Bulgaria after being charged with smuggling stolen ancient Egyptian artifacts, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said on Thursday.

"Ali Abu Taam was accused of smuggling more than 1,000 antiquities and helping Egyptian dealer Tareq al-Sweissi smuggle Egyptian pieces that belonged to different dynasties," said SCA chief Zahi Hawas.

Washington  - The US Senate is expected to vote later Thursday on whether to release the second half of a 700-billion- dollar bail-out package passed last year to keep the finance industry afloat.

The vote in the 100-member upper house is seen as a key test for president-elect Barack Obama, who is to take office on Tuesday. Both Democrats and Republicans have expressed hesitancy about releasing the remaining 350 billion dollars of the controversial programme aimed at halting a further economic slide.

Ruhpolding, Germany  - Norway led from start to finish as Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and his team-mates ended a 12-month biathlon World Cup men's relay rot on Thursday.

Emil Hegle Svendsen, Alexander Os, Halvard Hanevold and Bjoerndalen won the 4x7.5 kilometres event in 1 hour 24 minutes 54.0 seconds. It was Norway's third win in a row in Ruhpolding but they had not topped a relay podium since the 2008 edition of the race.

Prague  - If the European Union cannot find a way to make a new database for monitoring the fingerprints and photographs of people entering the bloc work by June, it should scrap the multi- million-euro project, EU interior ministers agreed Thursday.

The project for the second-generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) "is in a critical stage ... It may be that SIS II won't work," Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer, who chaired the informal meeting in Prague, told journalists.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni authorities are investigating the killing of a local fisherman during an anti-piracy operation by a Russian navy ship in the Gulf of Aden, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry said in a statement that a fisherman was killed and two others injured as a Russian frigate attacked suspected Somali pirates near the southern Yemeni port city of Aden Wednesday.

La Rioja, Argentina  - Giniel de Villers won Thursday's Dakar Rally stage and reclaimed the overall lead because Spain's Carlos Sainz was forced to abandon the race on a day of mixed emotions for the Volkswagen team.

The two-time rally world champion Sainz and his co-pilot Michel Perin drove their VW Touareg into a ravine. Sainz escaped unhurt and could have continued but Perin sustained a shoulder injury which ended their title hopes.