Nearly 7,000 people in Canada's Alberta province have been evacuated from the path of wildfires which threaten to ravage homes and businesses, including oil refineries in the region, officials said Tuesday.

More than 1,600 firefighters are battling the 70 wildfires, 55 of which were sparked by lightning on Sunday.

Australia on Monday appointed a counter-terrorism chief to coordinate security agencies, while pointing to the United States and Britain to justify a proposal to strip citizenship from dual nationals linked to jihadists.

Like many countries, Australia is grappling with heightened threats from "home-grown" extremists with several alleged terror plots foiled this year inspired by the Islamic State group.

Canada is to hold a national conference to discuss ways of preventing young people from pursuing jihadism following the arrest of 10 youths attempting to join the Islamic State group, officials said Wednesday.

A spokesman for Minister of Public Safety Steven Blaney said no date had been set for the meeting, which would bring together officials from all Canadian provinces to discuss prevention strategies.

Canadian police arrested 10 young people as they allegedly tried to leave the country to join the Islamic State group, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Tuesday.

The federal police arrested the group, all residents of the Montreal area, last weekend at the city's international airport and their passports have been withdrawn.

A wealthy Canadian-Jordanian businessman, who was invited to the West Bank for an investment conference, has been arrested by Israel and held without legal advice, his lawyer said Monday.

According to Avi BarAm, Ibrahim Siyyam tried to cross from Jordan into the West Bank with a group of businessmen earlier this month but was detained by Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency and questioned without access to a lawyer.

Canada's high court Thursday rejected Ottawa's bid to treat former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, who was just 15 when he was captured on an Afghan battlefield, as an adult criminal.

The government had brought the legal challenge to prevent Khadr's transfer from a Canadian federal penitentiary to a more comfortable provincial correctional facility for petty criminals and young offenders.

Lawmakers passed a bitterly opposed anti-terror law Wednesday dramatically expanding the powers and reach of Canada's spy agency, allowing it to operate overseas for the first time. 

The move came in response to the first terror attacks on Canadian soil last October, when a gunman killed a ceremonial guard and stormed parliament, and a soldier was run over in rural Quebec.

An appeals court delayed Tuesday the release of former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr from a Canadian jail in order to mull arguments that doing so would cause irreparable harm to Canada's diplomatic relations.

A final bail decision in the case has now been pushed to Thursday.

The Canadian government said Monday it will seek an emergency stay of bail granted by a Canadian judge to former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr.

The application would be heard Tuesday morning, ahead of a scheduled hearing to set Khadr's release conditions, said Jeremy Laurin, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged Can$122.8 million Wednesday to help Jordan cope with a massive influx of Syrian refugees and boost its counterterrorism capabilities.

Both Canada and Jordan are part of the U.S.-led military mission targeting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria with airstrikes.