The FBI is investigating a string of hacks that defaced U.S. websites with imagery from the Islamic State jihadist group, NBC News reported on Monday.

Websites including a racecar speedway in the state of Ohio, a Goodwill center in Missouri and a church in Canada were defaced with the radical group's black flag, the news organization reported.

A Canadian special forces soldier was killed in a friendly fire incident after he and others ignored an order to stay in their car and showed up to the front line unannounced, a spokesman for Iraq's Kurdish forces said Sunday.

The death Friday of Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron marked Canada's first casualty as part of the U.S.-led coalition's war on the extremist Islamic State group. Canadian officials could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday on the peshmerga claim, though Canada's defense minister previously acknowledged Doiron's death came as a result of "a case of mistaken identity."

Four Canadian government ministers were sent envelopes of a suspicious white powder on Thursday that was later believed to be harmless, police said.

"In each case, a staffer found white powder in an envelope" at the ministers' Quebec regional offices, provincial police Sergeant Richard Gagne told AFP.

A Canadian pastor who went missing in North Korea is being held by the communist state's authorities, his church and Canadian consular officials said Thursday.

Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim, 60, has not been heard from since January 31, just after he arrived in North Korea via China.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Wednesday upcoming legislation that would add an extra 10 years to life sentences, while making parole decisions political for "the most hardened criminals."

The proposal to extend life sentences from 25 to 35 years comes ahead of October elections that will undoubtedly see Harper once again champion stiffer penalties for criminals all around.

Three people were arrested Tuesday over a "potential threat" to a mall near Canada's port city of Halifax, which is home to the navy's Atlantic fleet.

Halifax Police Constable Pierre Bourdages said a "heavy police presence" was dispatched to the Mic Mac Mall in the Halifax suburb of Dartmouth.

A Canadian pastor who has reportedly gone missing in North Korea was invited to the capital Pyongyang just before his disappearance, a prominent Seoul activist said Tuesday.

Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim, of the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, has not been heard from since January 31, just after he arrived in North Korea via China, according to media reports in Canada and South Korea.

Toronto police said Monday they now know who dug a tunnel near a major sporting venue in Toronto -- a mystery that has been a source of widespread speculation and conspiracy theories.

In a statement, police said two young men stepped forward to acknowledge responsibility after authorities made a public plea for help to determine its purpose.

Concerned about a growing number of Canadian youths traveling overseas to join jihadists, and lacking an immediate alternative, political leaders have asked parents to keep a more watchful eye on their children for signs of extremism.

"These situations are disastrous," Quebec premier Philippe Couillard said Friday, a day after Canadians learned that six of their own, aged 18 and 19, including two young women, had left for Syria via Turkey mid-January.

At least six young Canadian men and women from Montreal and its suburbs traveled overseas last month to join the Islamic State group, local media reported Thursday.

Some of them, including two young women, were students at Montreal CEGEP College de Maisonneuve.