Two former Guantanamo inmates who were resettled in Uruguay will tie the knot in a joint ceremony with women they met in their new homeland, individuals close to the couples told Agence France Presse Friday.

Last December, six ex-detainees were released from the U.S. military prison and sent to Uruguay, which accepted them as refugees.

Thousands gathered Friday to take in the New York skyline as the observation deck of the new World Trade Center -- viewed by many as a symbol of the city's resilience -- opened to the public.

The gleaming glass tower, constructed on the site where the Twin Towers stood before being destroyed in the September 11 attacks of 2001, is the tallest building in the Western hemisphere. 

U.S. President Barack Obama has urged Congress to prevent key national security surveillance measures from lapsing on midnight Sunday, warning inaction could hamper counterterrorism efforts.

"I expect them to take action, and take action swiftly," Obama said Friday, ahead of a deadline for the Senate to act.

They're easy to drive and hard to stop, can be made on a farm and destroy a city block: the Islamic State group's monstrous truck bombs are reshaping the battlefield.

The jihadists used about 30 explosives-rigged vehicles in the Iraqi city of Ramadi this month, blasting their way through positions government and allied fighters had managed to hold for more than a year.

An exiled Iranian opposition group accused Tehran Thursday of a "vast collaboration" with North Korea in developing nuclear arms, alleging that experts from both countries made regular intelligence-sharing visits.

"The Iranian regime continues to collaborate with North Korea on nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles," the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a report citing sources close to the Iranian government.

The winning entry from a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest will not be allowed on ads on Washington's public transportation system, officials said Thursday, angering competition organizers.

The cartoon was part of a contest that came under attack in Texas last month, when two suspected Islamist gunmen opened fire on event participants with assault rifles, before a traffic policeman shot them dead.  

Fresh satellite images show substantial new construction at North Korea's space rocket launch site, mirroring leader Kim Jong-Un's recent vow to launch more satellites in defiance of U.N. resolutions, a U.S. think-tank said Friday.

The impoverished but nuclear-armed North sent an Unha-3 rocket into space in December 2012 from the Sohae satellite launch site -- a move the international community condemned as a disguised ballistic missile test and punished with further sanctions.

President Barack Obama paid a surprise visit Thursday to a Miami religious shrine popular with Cuban exiles, amid moves by Washington and Havana to normalize ties after five decades of enmity.

"The president is visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami to pay his respects to the Cuban-American diaspora that worships there," said Bernadette Meehan, National Security Council spokeswoman.

China accused the United States on Thursday of threatening to sow "chaos" in the Asia-Pacific region by inciting countries whose territorial claims in the South China Sea clash with those of Beijing.

It is the latest round in a war of words over the area, where tensions are mounting and rhetoric escalating.

Al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front chief vowed in a wide-randing televised interview late Wednesday to defeat Hizbullah in al-Qalamoun.

Without showing his face, Abu Mohamed al-Jolani promised defeat for Hizbullah, which has significantly bolstered the Bashar Assad regime, in the mountainous border region between Syria and Lebanon.