VIENNA, Austria -- North Korea moved closer yesterday to relaunching its nuclear arms program, announcing that it wants to reactivate the facility that produced its atomic bomb and banning United Nations inspectors from the site.

The United States said the moves did not mean the death of international efforts to persuade the North to recommit to an agreement that offers it diplomatic and economic concessions in exchange for nuclear disarmament.

Despite the gloomy implications of North Korea's moves, they could be a negotiating ploy: The year needed to start its reprocessing plant could be used to wrest more concessions from the regime's interlocutors.

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Two American journalists whose disappearance prompted a U.S. Embassy alert and a wide search turned up in Syrian custody yesterday 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 worked for an English-language newspaper, the Jordan Times.

It was not known why they tried to sneak across the border into Syria. They were on vacation, but may have sought to report on the widespread smuggling between Lebanon and Syria, particularly through back roads in remote parts of the north.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Iceland yesterday suspended trading on its stock exchange for two days and took control of the country's largest bank -- the third to be placed under its protective umbrella -- as it grappled with a banking crisis that is threatening to engulf the entire country.

The Nordic nation's government also used sweeping new emergency powers to create a new bank that will take over the bulk of the domestic operations of another one of its collapsed banks.

The country is struggling to get a grip on the collapse of its top-heavy banking system.

The crisis is also causing ripples throughout Europe, where tens of thousands of people have accounts with subsidiaries of the Icelandic banks.

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

Tenzin Taklha told The Associated Press that the Dalai Lama was admitted to a New Delhi hospital for "further consultations with doctors."

Mr. Taklha declined to say when he was hospitalized or provide any details on his condition.

PODGORICA, Montenegro -- Both Montenegro and Macedonia recognized Kosovo's independence yesterday, despite opposition from Serbia, which called the moves by its Balkan neighbors a betrayal and expelled the Montenegrin ambassador from Belgrade.

The moves represent a major blow to Serbia's diplomatic efforts to maintain a claim over Kosovo, considered by Serbs to be the cradle of their Orthodox Christian religion and statehood.

Montenegro and Macedonia -- both seeking membership in NATO and the European Union -- have been under pressure from the United States and some EU countries to recognize Kosovo's February declaration of independence.