A group claiming to have seized a Wall Street Journal reporter missing in Pakistan said he was being held in "inhuman conditions" comparable to those of suspected terrorists in U.S. custody, the newspaper reported yesterday.

An e-mail from "The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty" accused reporter Daniel Pearl of being a CIA officer posing as a journalist, the Journal reported yesterday on its Web site.

The newspaper said the e-mail was accompanied by four photographs of Pearl, with one showing him with a gun to his head, and demanded better treatment for fighters being held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.

In Pakistan, police sources speaking on condition they not be identified told The Associated Press they believe Pearl was kidnapped by Harkat ul-Mujahedeen, which has close ties to al-Qaida and is on the U.S. government's terrorist organizations list. A number of Harkat fighters are known to have been killed in Afghanistan during the bombing campaign.

Pearl, 38, a reporter based in Bombay, India, has been missing since Wednesday, when he went to visit a source near Karachi, Pakistan, for a story about terrorism, the newspaper said.

Steven Goldstein, a vice president of Dow Jones & Co., the Journal's owner, said the newspaper "has not had any direct contact with the group" that claimed to hold Pearl.

He said the photographs appear to be legitimate but would not be distributed.

Both the newspaper and the Central Intelligence Agency denied that Pearl worked for the agency.

"Although we don't normally discuss such matters, Daniel Pearl does not now, nor has he ever worked for the CIA," agency spokeswoman Anya Guilsher told the AP yesterday.

Looking weak but still smiling, the Dalai Lama was admitted into a Bombay hospital yesterday after doctors detected a lump in his stomach.

Wearing his red Buddhist robe, the supreme leader of Tibetan Buddhists walked into Lilawati Hospital with the help of aides.

"The Dalai Lama is cheerful and talking to his associates," Prakash Mhatre, a director at Lilawati Hospital, said later.

Mhatre said doctors were taking X-rays and conducting ultrasounds and blood tests. He said test results were expected today.

The Dalai Lama, 66, had undergone a medical checkup at the same hospital in early December. "He was found to be completely normal then," Mhatre said.

The Dalai Lama was earlier flown to Bombay in a private airplane from Patna, the capital of the eastern state of Bihar, with two federal government officials, his close aides and doctors.

He was taken to Patna in a government helicopter from the religious hub of Gaya, where health problems forced him to cancel his engagements at the most sacred worship ceremony of Tibetan Buddhists.

The Tibetan spiritual leader had been complaining of abdominal pain and exhaustion and was examined by a team of doctors in a Buddhist monastery in Bodhgaya, where he had been staying since last week, said Masood Butt, his press coordinator. It then was decided he would fly to Bombay.

A member of the medical team, A.M. Rai, said the Dalai Lama had a lump in his stomach, but gave no further details.

On Thursday, the Dalai Lama postponed his teachings before tens of thousands of followers at a special service. He said he would not be able to finish the rituals, which require him to sit still for at least five hours.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 with thousands of supporters after a failed uprising against China. Since then, he has headed a government-in-exile in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his nonviolent struggle against Chinese rule.

A Mexican national has been arrested after authorities found more than a ton of marijuana stashed inside a water tanker he was driving.

The tanker was stopped for speeding southwest of Tucson on Saturday morning, according to state Department of Public Safety officers.

DPS spokesman Paul Castellano said the marijuana was discovered after officers noticed the smell of marijuana coming from the vehicle.

Marco Antonio Moran-Hernandez, 33, was arrested and booked into Pima County Jail on charges of possession and transport of marijuana, the DPS said.