The French government, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Le Monde newspaper on Friday demanded that Burundi immediately free a French journalist and a British photographer arrested while reporting in the volatile central African nation.

"We were concerned to learn of the arrests of French journalist Jean-Philippe Remy and British photographer Philip Moore," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement.

A man carrying two handguns, ammunition and a Koran was arrested Thursday at a hotel in Disneyland Paris, a police source said.

The man was "detected upon his arrival at the hotel on the Disneyland site where he had a reservation. Hotel security found two handguns, a Koran and ammunition on him," the source said.

Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Thursday criticized Franco-German dominance in EU decision-making, especially on the refugee crisis, speaking on the eve of a Berlin visit.

Renzi stressed that he holds German Chancellor Angela Merkel in high esteem, but also made the case for a bigger role for Italy and other European Union members in jointly tackling European crises.

Around 20 schools in France and Britain were placed on bomb alert Thursday following another round of telephone threats, the second in a week.

Police were sent to secure five of the most prestigious schools in Paris after bomb threats were phoned in, and British police said they were probing threats at 14 schools in central England believed to be "false and malicious."

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and his French counterpart Francois Hollande hailed a "new relationship" between their countries Thursday as the leader of the Islamic Republic visited Paris to seal a host of post-sanctions deals.

A commitment for Tehran to buy 118 Airbus aircraft was the most eye-catching of the deals that also included agreements for carmaker Peugeot to return to Iran and for Total to buy Iranian crude oil.

France is working to strengthen its relations with Russia in spite of Western sanctions imposed against Moscow over the Ukraine crisis, French economy minister Emmanuel Macron said in Moscow Monday.

"Our ministerial visits are not focused on diplomacy but show the strong desire to preserve and even strengthen our diplomatic relations while respecting the sanctions in the current political and diplomatic framework," Macron told reporters after a meeting with Russian counterpart Alexei Ulyukayev.

The Council of Europe on Monday criticized France's bid to extend the state of emergency imposed after the deadly Paris attacks, in a letter from the watchdog's secretary-general to President Francois Hollande.

The measures put in place after the coordinated jihadist attacks that killed 130 in Paris on November 13 give greater powers to security services to act without requiring judicial oversight or search warrants.

French President Francois Hollande vowed Monday not to weaken his resolve against terrorism as he held talks with India's leader on security cooperation and a long-delayed defense deal.

Hollande said he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to step up cooperation on counter-terrorism after deadly attacks on Paris in November that recalled the 2008 assault on Mumbai.

When a state of emergency was imposed in France after the November attacks, numb and terror-weary citizens welcomed the show of force.

But a sense of creeping unease over civil liberties has turned to outright opposition in many quarters as French President Francois Hollande indicated this week he would seek to renew the measure for another three months.

A man who tried to attack a police station in Paris this month had no links to Islamist networks, German authorities said Friday after carrying out new raids in a refugee shelter where he lived.

Investigations "over the past two weeks have brought no indications of any Islamist network" connected to the man, said Uwe Jacob, police chief of North Rhine-Westphalia state.