The U.N. Security Council on Thursday unanimously backed an African and French military intervention to halt deadly chaos in Central African Republic.

A French-drafted resolution gives a U.N. mandate to about 4,800 African and French troops being sent to the impoverished nation, which is facing growing Muslim-Christian strife.

Central African Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye pleaded Thursday for France to intervene in his violence-ridden nation as soon as the U.N. issues a green light.

The U.N. Security Council was due to vote later Thursday on a resolution authorizing thousands of African and French troops to end anarchy in the Central African Republic, where mass killings have triggered fears of genocide.

French lawmakers on Wednesday approved a controversial bill that will make the clients of prostitutes liable for fines starting at 1,500 euros ($2,000).

The draft anti-prostitution law was approved by the lower house National Assembly with 268 deputies voting in favor, 138 voting against and 79 abstaining.

A French report ruling out poisoning in Yasser Arafat's 2004 death, rather than laying to rest suspicions of an assassination, has prompted denial and incredulity from Palestinian officials and relatives of the late president.

The Palestinians, who have long cried foul, with some pointing the finger directly at Israel, cited Wednesday apparent inconsistencies between the French findings and separate ones from Switzerland and Russia that gave currency to alleged poisoning by polonium.

The widow of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said on Wednesday she was still convinced he was poisoned, after French experts ruled out the theory that he had been assassinated.

"I'm still completely convinced that the martyr Arafat did not die a natural death, and I will keep trying to get to the truth," Suha Arafat told AFP.

French President Francois Hollande revealed on Wednesday he was hospitalized in February 2011 to be treated for a benign enlargement of the prostate.

"The president of the republic Francois Hollande confirms that in February 2011, he was hospitalized for a few days in a urology service at Cochin hospital for a benign prostatic hypertrophy," the presidency said in a statement.

France will authorize the deployment of armed guards on ships as part of anti-piracy measures, a move long sought by shipping companies, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in an interview published Tuesday.

"We will allow the use of private teams who can complement missions being accomplished by the national navy," Ayrault told the Marin Ouest-France magazine. "Shipping companies have strongly urged this and we have heard them."

Ailing former French president Jacques Chirac underwent successful kidney surgery on Monday, associates of the 81-year-old told Agence France Presse.

"It went very well and he is doing fine," one said, adding that Chirac would be spending several days recovering at the Paris hospital which carried out the operation.

France on Monday arrested 45 people in a vast sweep against international arms traffickers, police said.

In a statement, police said some 300 officers had been involved in the operation, which focused on hundreds of military-grade arms, pieces of ammunition and weapons parts trafficked from the Balkans and Slovakia since 2009.

France's Socialist government is to maintain most of the existing restrictions on Sunday shopping, despite criticism that they are ill-suited to a country battling record unemployment.

Speaking after the publication of a government-sponsored report which called for a partial easing of the curbs, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the government would legislate to clear up anomalies in the patchwork of local and national rules governing Sunday trading.