Berlin  - The European Union plans to resume programs to protect dairy farmers, an EU official said Thursday, the day before one of the world's major farm-products fairs opens for business in the German capital of Berlin.

Mariann Fischer Boel, commissioner for agriculture, said, "The abruptness of the fall in the price of milk in the last few months has surprised a lot of people." The EU ceased subsidizing exports a year and a half ago.

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.

Cloppenburg, Germany  - Around half a millio

Berlin  - The Chief Executive of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann, has recovered following a dizzy spell, a spokesman for the bank announced Thursday.

"I can confirm that he went to hospital for a brief medical check," spokesman Ronald Weichert said, adding that Ackermann was now back at work.

At a reception Wednesday evening in Berlin, the 60-year-old briefly felt unwell, possibly as a result of food he had eaten. An ambulance took him to hospital at around 9 pm, according to Berlin's emergency services.

Berlin - Germany is to train security forces in Mali to stop people traffickers from moving illegal migrants northwards from Africa to Europe, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.

She was speaking after talks with Mali's President Amadou Toumani Toure, in Berlin.

Germany would assist in training and also provide technical aid so that the forces could counter the drug smugglers and people smugglers, Merkel said.

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid her first visit Thursday to the archives of former East Germany's secret police, the Stasi.

Merkel spoke favourably about the work being carried out at the archives, which documents surveillance carried out by the former East German socialist state on its citizens.

"It has been shown that the opening of the Stasi files has contributed to reconciliation, and not division" the chancellor said during her first visit to the former Stasi-headquarters, situated in east Berlin's Lichtenberg area.