A Quebec woman starved herself to death Friday, on the same day a court was to set a trial date for her alleged drowning of her three young children, local media said.

Sonia Blanchette had been charged with murdering her children, aged two to five years, in December 2012 at the height of a custody dispute with her partner.

Canadian foreign minister John Baird said he had a "fruitful" meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Thursday to seek the release of a Canadian journalist imprisoned with two Al-Jazeera colleagues.

But Baird played down expectations that his visit could see Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy freed imminently after more than a year in jail.

Canada's top diplomat on Wednesday voiced concern at the flogging of a Saudi blogger for "insulting Islam" and urged Riyadh to show clemency.

Raef Badawi, 31, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison as well as 1,000 lashes. 

Five Canadians have died fighting alongside Islamic State militants in Syria, including a man who called for lone wolf attacks in Canada, local media reported Wednesday.

The National Post said Ottawa-born John Maguire, who joined IS jihadists in Syria in January 2013, died Wednesday in the flashpoint town Kobane. 

Canada arrested three men on terrorism-related charges in as many days because they represented a "serious" potential threat, the country's top public safety official said Tuesday.

"If accusations are laid, it's because there's a serious reason to believe they are potential terrorists," Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney told CBC television.

Canadian federal police announced Monday the arrest of a third Ottawa man on terrorism-related charges in as many days.

Suliman Mohamed, 21, faces charges of participating in the activities of a terrorist group, and conspiring to participate in terrorism with 24-year-old twin brothers who were arrested on Friday.

Egypt on Sunday freed an ailing former aide to ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi following 18 months in jail without charge, his Canada-based family said.

"On Monday December 29, 2014 the attorney general issued an order for Khaled al-Qazzaz's release. Today, Khaled was released from his hospital room," the family said in a statement.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police said two brothers have been arrested and charged with terrorism related offences.

In a statement police said that Ashton Carleton Larmond and Carlos Larmond, both 25, were planning to leave Canada to engage in terrorist activities abroad.

Thousands of people took to the streets in France and other countries again Thursday to condemn the killing of 12 people by Islamist gunmen at Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

In Paris, thousands of people packed Republique square, about a kilometre from the scene of Wednesday's massacre, for a second night running.

Hundreds in Washington, New York and Canada rallied Wednesday night in the frigid cold proclaiming "I am Charlie" in solidarity with those killed in a deadly attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Some 200 to 300 French and American protesters gathered in the nation's capital in front of the Newseum, a museum dedicated to news, waving signs and French flags emblazoned with the now ubiquitous rallying cry "Je suis Charlie."