NEW DELHI -- The Dalai Lama was hospitalized in New Delhi, his spokesman said early Friday, just days after a medical checkup cleared the Tibetan spiritual leader to resume foreign travel.

Taklha declined to say when he was hospitalized or provide any details on his condition. He said he expected more information to be released later in the day.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the spiritual leader was admitted to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the Indian capital. The hospital's duty officer Dr. Priyank Tyagi would not comment on the report.

In August, the 73-year-old Dalai Lama was admitted to a Mumbai hospital and underwent tests for abdominal discomfort. Doctors advised him to cancel a planned trip to Europe and rest, saying he was suffering from exhaustion.

BAGHDAD -- A roadside bomb killed a prominent member of Muqtada al-Sadr's political movement Thursday, raising fears of new internal Shiite bloodshed ahead of regional elections expected in January.

The victims' allies blamed U.S. and Iraqi forces for the blast. Suspicion also fell on Shiite splinter groups -- some with suspected links to Iran, which has sheltered al-Sadr for nearly 18 months.

Saleh al-Auqaeili, considered a moderate within al-Sadr's movement, was traveling in a convoy with other Shiite lawmakers when the bombing occurred about 200 yards from an Iraqi army checkpoint in mostly Shiite eastern Baghdad, a colleague said.

Al-Auqaeili died at a hospital, Sadrist spokesman Ahmed al-Massoudi said. One commuter on a motorcycle was also killed in the blast, police said.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- A suspected U.S. missile strike targeted two areas in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghanistan border on Thursday, killing at least nine people, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

Also Thursday, bombings targeting police killed 10 people and wounded 14 in Pakistan's volatile northwest and the capital -- reminders of the challenge facing the country as its lawmakers pursue a national anti-terror consensus.

The alleged missile strikes appeared to be part of a surge in U.S. cross-border assaults from Afghanistan on alleged militant targets in Pakistan, which have strained ties between the two anti-terror allies.

One missile strike occurred at a house in Tappi village in North Waziristan tribal region. Some of those killed were believed to be foreigners, said two local Pakistani intelligence officials, citing reports from informants and agents.

A local tribesman, Shoaib Dawar, said Taliban militants surrounded the house. He said drones were heard in the area before the strike.

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Two American journalists whose disappearance prompted a U.S. Embassy alert and a wide search turned up in Syrian custody Thursday after being detained while trying to sneak into the country with smugglers, Syrian officials said.

Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23, were released later in the day in good condition, said the U.S. State Department.

"They are at our embassy in Damascus, they are in good shape and they are getting in touch with their families," said deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut launched a search Wednesday with Lebanese authorities after the two failed to return to Amman, Jordan, last weekend from a vacation in Lebanon. They worked for an English-language newspaper, the Jordan Times.

The two had last been heard from on Oct. 1, when they checked out of a Beirut hotel, reportedly headed to the northern port city of Tripoli, site of sectarian clashes and attacks by Islamic militants in recent months.

MALE, Maldives -- Maumoon Abdul Gayoom celebrated his top showing Thursday in the Maldives' first democratic election, but the nation's longtime ruler failed to win a majority and will now face his chief nemesis in a runoff.

Gayoom, who ruled this Indian Ocean archipelago unchallenged for 30 years, came in first in the field of six candidates in Wednesday's election with 41 percent of the vote, a result he called "a very significant victory for me."

"If anything is shown by this vote, it's that I'm still the most popular public figure in this country," he said.

But leaders of the divided opposition, who branded Gayoom a dictator and called the election a referendum on his reign, took heart from his failure to win an outright victory.

"The vast majority of people are against Gayoom ... they want a change," said Maldivian Democratic Party leader Mohamed Nasheed, who came in second with 25 percent.

Nasheed, who has been jailed repeatedly by Gayoom's regime for leading the campaign to bring democracy, said he would now work to unite the opposition in the second round of voting, scheduled for Oct. 29.

"The game is still on, we are in the fight," he said.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Some rural Zimbabweans facing one of the hungriest years they could remember have been forced to live on a meal a day and in some cases only on wild fruits, the U.N. food aid agency said Thursday.

The World Food Program appealed for donations to help fight hunger in Zimbabwe, straining as an economic collapse, years of food scarcity, AIDS and poor weather have combined to put it in a category all its own in a region where most nations are poor.

"Zimbabwe is the only one that is facing a national crisis," agency spokesman Richard Lee said.

The economic collapse, with inflation of at least 231 million percent a year, has put seeds, fertilizer and farming equipment out of the reach of many Zimbabweans. AIDS has devastated the farming work force. Weather has been a factor, with either too much rain in some areas and too little in others.