French President Francois Hollande said on Friday that operations will be stepped up against the Islamic State movement in Iraq, which must be "struck hard".

"The pace of our actions is going to speed up. We have collected all the information necessary," Hollande said, when asked about recent French operations in Iraq as part of a US-led coalition air campaign against IS fighters.

The international coalition currently battling the Islamic State group in Iraq dropped around 70 bombs on an arsenal and jihadist training center in a large-scale overnight raid, the French military said Friday.

"I think it's safe to say we hurt them last night. The operation is a success," France's Chief of the Defence Staff Pierre de Villiers told Europe 1 radio, adding the raid took place in the Kirkuk region of northern Iraq.

Two French journalists were Friday handed short jail terms for illegally reporting in Indonesia's Papua province, but will walk free next week after already having served the time in custody, their lawyer said.

Thomas Dandois, 40, and Valentine Bourrat, 29, were detained at the start of August while making a documentary for Franco-German television channel Arte about the separatist movement in eastern Papua.

France's interior minister said Thursday he had dispatched 100 extra police to the northern port of Calais where an influx of illegal migrants trying to get to Britain is causing more and more havoc.

The northern city has for months been struggling to cope with a growing tide of migrants fleeing wars or repression, and authorities say up to 2,300 asylum-seekers are now living rough in Calais and surrounding areas -- up from 1,500 at the end of the summer.

The driver of the snowplough that blocked the take-off of a private plane at a Moscow airport, killing the CEO of France's Total oil company, said he drove onto the runway after losing his bearings.

The grey-haired, 60-year-old driver told investigators he could not understand how he drove into the path of the plane, according to a video aired Wednesday on state-controlled Channel One state television.

Lebanon will witness in the upcoming days a diplomatic movement that will begin with a visit by Former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who will meet senior Lebanese officials.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, Fillon will visit Lebanon for the second time in less than a year.

The CEO of French oil giant Total, Christophe de Margerie, died in a plane crash at a Moscow airport late Monday when the private jet he was using struck a snowplough on takeoff.

Russian investigators said Tuesday the driver of the snow-clearing machine was drunk and that his actions, along with "an error by air traffic controllers", appeared to be to blame for the crash.

French police on Monday fired tear gas at hundreds of migrants trying to force their way onto trucks in the northern port of Calais in a desperate bid to reach Britain.

Police in the Pas-de-Calais department where the port is located said they had to call in reinforcements to deal with the asylum seekers.

French fighter jets have carried out a third round of air strikes against Islamic State jihadists in support of Iraqi ground forces, the defense ministry said Monday.

Two Rafale jets on Sunday destroyed two pick-up trucks belonging to the extremist group, which has seized vast swaths of Iraq and Syria.

Two French journalists went on trial in Indonesia's Papua on Monday accused of breaching visa regulations by illegally reporting on its separatist movement, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

Thomas Dandois, 40, and Valentine Bourrat, 29, were detained at the start of August while making a documentary for Franco-German television channel Arte.