Islamists were holding a number of foreigners hostage at a gas plant deep in the Algerian desert on Saturday, nearly 48 hours after a failed rescue attempt killed at least 12 of them, a security source said.

Al-Qaida-linked gunmen said after Thursday's rescue raid they still held seven foreigners -- three Belgians, two Americans, one Japanese and a Briton -- inside the sprawling Sahara complex in northeast Algeria near the border with Libya.

The official tasked with running the Guantanamo military tribunals has rejected a prosecution recommendation to drop one of the counts faced by several detainees charged in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Pentagon said Friday.

Brigadier General Mark Martins had asked the Pentagon authority overseeing the trial to drop the charge of conspiracy, while keeping intact other counts against the defendants accused in the murders of nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Authorities were working Friday to repair a dike that collapsed amid floods that swamped the Indonesian capital as the waters gradually receded from the main streets of the teeming city.

But more monsoon rains were expected over Jakarta later Friday into Saturday, raising the prospect of fresh flooding, said Fadli, an official at the country's meteorology agency who goes by a single name.

Falkland Islanders will be asked specifically whether they want the archipelago to retain its status as a British overseas territory in a referendum on March 10 and 11, its government announced.

Confirming the date and the final wording of the question, the referendum is intended at sending Argentina an unambiguous verdict from the 3,000-odd islanders, amid tension between London and Buenos Aires over sovereignty.

The United States and China have made a deal under which the U.N. Security Council will expand existing sanctions against North Korea for staging a ballistic missile test, envoys said Friday.

The deal was struck after weeks of intense negotiations following the December 12 launch. The talks have involved U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, according to envoys.

The White House and the U.S. Defense Department are at odds over the danger posed by radical Islamic groups that have taken control of parts of Mali and are stirring up trouble in other parts of West Africa, The Los Angeles Times reported late Friday.

Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the newspaper said the events in Mali and neighboring Algeria have prompted sharp debate within President Barack Obama's administration over whether these radicals present enough of a risk to warrant a military response.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday strongly condemned the "heinous" attack and hostage-taking at an Algerian gas complex by al-Qaida linked militants.

A statement agreed by the 15-member council stressed the need to bring the al-Qaida linked attackers and their backers to justice.

The United States said Friday it was "deeply disappointed" by Iran's response to a team from the U.N. nuclear agency, criticizing Tehran's reluctance to provide access to a sensitive site.

"We are obviously deeply disappointed that Iran has once again missed an opportunity to cooperate with the IAEA," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Prosecutors on Friday accused Ukraine's jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko of organizing the 1996 murder of a powerful lawmaker and warned that a guilty verdict could put her behind bars for life.

Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said the fiery 52-year-old has been informed by prosecutors she and another former prime minister detained in the United States are now formal suspects in the murder of deputy Yevgen Shcherban.

A former top U.N. official in Sudan on Friday warned that "ethnic cleansing" is going on in the southern part of Sudan, where the people are suffering from hunger, disease and bombing in two war-torn states.

Just back from a trip to Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, where conflict between rebels and Sudanese government forces has raged for over a year, Mukesh Kapila called on the international community to come to the aid of the some 1.5 million people living in these states that border South Sudan.