French President Francois Hollande has renewed calls for a 'European presence' in the Central African Republic, saying he expects Poland to provide military support for the French troops in the African country.

"At the moment there are some ongoing contacts sometimes to a very good extent. I have Poland in mind ... to provide troops for operations that could add up to ours. If the decision is confirmed tomorrow, then the operation will be considered a European one, opening the way to European financing," Hollande said at the end of the first day of European Union summit talks on Thursday.

The French president also welcomed logistical backing from some European countries including Belgium, Britain, Germany and Poland.

"What I would like to see, politically, is a European presence.That it not be said that 'France is alone,'" he said at a news conference.

Former government ministers and intelligence chiefs face a series of disturbing questions over the UK's involvement in the abduction and torture of terrorism suspects after 9/11, an official inquiry has concluded.

In a damning report that swept aside years of denials, the Gibson inquiry concluded that the British government and its intelligence agencies had been involved in so-called rendition operations, in which detainees were kidnapped and flown around the globe, and had interrogated detainees who they knew were being mistreated.

MI6 officers were informed that they were under no obligation to report breaches of the Geneva conventions; intelligence officers appear to have taken advantage of the abuse of detainees; and Jack Straw, as foreign secretary, had suggested that the law might be amended to allow suspects to be rendered to the UK.

Leaders of the nation's biggest technology firms warned President Obama during a lengthy meeting at the White House on Tuesday that National Security Agency spying programs are damaging their reputations and could harm the broader economy.

Cisco Systems has said it is seeing customers, especially overseas, back away from American-branded technology after documents revealed that the NSA enlisted tech firms and secretly tapped into their data hubs around the world as the agency pursued terrorism suspects. Companies such as IBM, AT&T and Verizon Communications are facing angry shareholders, some of whom have filed lawsuits demanding that the companies disclose their participation in NSA intelligence programs.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been freed, bringing an end to more than a decade behind bars after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree pardoning him.

Putin made the surprise announcement on Thursday that he planned to pardon the country's former richest man, who is regarded by Kremlin critics as a political prisoner. On Friday morning the Kremlin said the decree had been signed. By lunchtime, Khodorkovsky had left the prison camp in northern Russia where he was serving his sentence, his lawyer said. "He has left the [prison] colony. That's all I can say," Vadim Klyuvgant told Reuters.

The decree, signed by Putin, pardoned Khodorkovsky on the basis of "the principles of humanism".

Putin's announcement that he intended to release Khodorkovsky - who has been in jail since 2003 and was due for release next August - came at the end of a four-hour press conference in Moscow.

A long-awaited report analyzing the male-dominated culture of the U.S. Secret Service has concluded that the elite law enforcement agency does not have a widespread problem with its employees engaging in sexual misconduct while on official business.

The findings of the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general come 1½ years after more than a dozen Secret Service agents and officers were implicated in a prostitution scandal on President Obama's trip to Cartagena, Colombia. Congress requested the report after agency officials testified that the behavior was an aberration and not indicative of a broader institutional lack of control and accountability within the agency.

The report determined that there have been isolated cases of misbehavior, and investigators recommended that the Secret Service implement 14 new guidelines to identify and address misconduct by employees. Investigators said that the agency has implemented 11 of the recommendations.

"Although individual employees have engaged in misconduct or inappropriate behavior, we did not find evidence that misconduct is widespread in USSS," the Office of the Inspector General's report concluded, according to a copy obtained late Thursday by The Washington Post. "Furthermore, we did not find any evidence that USSS leadership has fostered an environment that tolerates inappropriate behavior."

The report warned, however, that the agency "should continue to monitor and address excessive alcohol consumption and personal conduct within its workforce."

Failure is a blow to the company and to David Cameron, who intervened personally to try to secure the order

BAE Systems has missed out on a £6bn contract to supply fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates, in a blow to British export hopes and David Cameron's own attempts to secure a deal.

The UK arms manufacturer revealed on Thursday that more than a year of talks to supply 60 Typhoon aircraft to the UAE had failed. It also said vital negotiations with the Saudi government over the pricing of an existing Typhoon contract, keenly anticipated by shareholders, will drag into next year.

The news is a serious setback for BAE as it seeks to reduce its reliance on US and British defence markets that have been hit by government spending cuts. BAE's search for new sources of revenue has seen it pursue a failed merger with the Airbus owner Eads and launch a major push into emerging defence markets such as the UAE and India.

In its statement, BAE said: "BAE Systems and the UK Government have been in discussions with the Government of the United Arab Emirates regarding a range of defence and security capabilities including the potential supply of Typhoon aircraft. The UAE have advised that they have elected not to proceed with these proposals at this time."

The news is a blow not only to BAE but also to the prime minister, who intervened personally last month to try to secure a deal that would have represented a significant boost for British exports. During a visit to the UAE, Cameron urged Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, to opt for the Typhoon over a rival fighter produced by France's Dassault Systemes. Analysts thought the prime minister's move could have swung the deal for BAE, raising hopes that the UK will meet George Osborne's target of doubling exports to £1tn by 2020.

US lawmakers are considering a compromise five-year farm bill that would cut the food stamp program by $8 billion over the next 10 years.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told Reuters on Thursday that changing eligibility rules and disqualifying up to 4 million Americans who depend on food stamps would also help the US government save $40 billion over a decade.

As part of the new US farm bill, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives proposed to cut nearly $40 billion from nutrition programs, the largest cuts in a generation. However, the Democratic-controlled Senate voted to reduce food-stamp funding by $4.5 billion.

Food stamp benefits are the most politically contentious component of the first US farm bill since 2008.

"From everything I've seen, we are now within a few items of having this agreed to," said Harkin who is a member of the select committee responsible for reconciling the bills passed by the two chambers of the US Congress.

A federal appeals court in New York City has revived litigation against Saudi Arabia on behalf of families of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

More than twelve years after the 9/11 attacks and eight years after a lower federal court ruled Saudi Arabia had immunity from prosecution, a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled on Thursday that families of 9/11 victims can get their day in court against Saudi Arabia.

According to the families of 9/11 victims, the kingdom provided support to al-Qaeda prior to the attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people.

"This opinion is eminently correct and will give 9/11 victims their day in court," said Stephen Cozen, a partner at the Pennsylvania-based law firm Cozen O'Connor representing the plaintiffs.

"The parties will start over, and we are very, very satisfied that we will meet any defenses, both legal and factual, that are raised," Cozen added.

It's time for our annual round-up of the biggest Pinocchios of the year. This was not a presidential election year, so in some ways the subjects that needed to be fact checked were more substantive. In reviewing The Fact Checker's more than 200 columns in the past year, we found an interesting evolution from statistics about gun violence to claims about President Obama's health-care law. Our general rule of thumb held: the more complex a subject is, the more tempted politicians are to make misleading claims.

President Obama ended up with three of the most misleading claims of the year. But, despite the urging of some readers, his statement that "I didn't set a red line" on Syria is not among them. We had looked closely at that claim and had determined that, in context, it was a bungled talking point, so that statement actually earned no rating.

As always, that and other rulings were met with vehement objections from some readers. The Fact Checker thanks the readers who have offered thoughtful rebuttals to our conclusions. In some cases, in light of new information, we adjusted Pinocchio ratings.

In compiling this list, we primarily focused on claims that had earned four Pinocchios during the year. We also tried to focus on issues of broad interest, such as gun control, health care and the size of government. To keep it simple, we have shortened the quotes in the headlines. To read the full column, click on the link embedded in the quote.

"If you like your health-care plan, you can keep it."

This memorable promise by President Obama backfired on him when the Affordable Care Act went into effect and millions of Americans started receiving cancellation notices. As we explained, part of the reason for so many cancellations is because of an unusually early (March 23, 2010) cut-off date for grandfathering plans - and because of tight regulations written by the administration. This was our most popular fact check of the year - and Obama's pledge also was also named PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year."

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wants kids to learn early in life that there's no such thing as a free lunch. To make sure they absorb that lesson, he's proposing that low-income children do some manual labor in exchange for their subsidized meals.

On Saturday, Kingston, who is vying to be his party's nominee in Georgia's Senate race next year, spoke at a meeting of the Jackson County Republican Party about the federal school lunch program.

Under that program, children from families with incomes at or below 130 percent of the poverty line are eligible for free meals. Students from families with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level can receive lunches at reduced prices.

But on Saturday, Kingston came out against free lunches, saying that children should have to pay at least a nominal amount or do some work like sweeping cafeteria floors.