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France in 1981 where he began a new career as a crime writer. The French authorities agreed to repeat the Italian requests for Mr. Battisti's extradition to Italy only in 2004. He fled Paris then and was arrested early today near Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach. Kristine Frazer reports.

Battisti has been a member of a leftwing group called the Armed Proletarians for Communism. He was convicted in absentian, sentenced to life in prison in Italy in 1990 for the murders of a prison guard and a butcher in the late seventies. He is also accused of being an accomplice to two other murders including the killing of a police officer. He escaped Italian prison in 1981 and fled to Mexico, eventually settling in France where he brought up two children.

The Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer has died after being found unconscious in his hotel room in Jamaica, which is hosting the Cricket World Cup alongside other Caribbean nations. Mike Lancheon reports.

Bob Woolmer who is 58 was discovered unconscious in his hotel room and was immediately taken to the emergency department of a nearby hospital where he later died. The Pakistan team media manager said Mr. Warmer, a former England Test batsman suffered from a medical condition but was unable to confirm whether it had caused his death. Mr. Warmer's sudden death came less than 24 hours after Pakistan's dramatic exit from the Cricket World Cup after a three-wicket defeats to Ireland.

The United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said it's too soon to know whether the recent deployment of thousands of additional American soldiers to Iraq is helping to quell sectarian violence. Mr. Gates said it would probably be several months before the Americans knew whether they were succeeding.

"General Odierno, the ground forces commander out there and General Petraeus, the overall commander, both warned that as the search took place into Baghdad and as we cleared people from Baghdad, that there will be kind of squatting effect that some of these people would begin to operate in other places. That's why we have to wait and see what kind of trend line appears over the next weeks and few months."

The opposition conservatives in Finland have made strong gains in the general election. The center right National Coalition Party came second, losing by a margin of just one seat to the Center Party of the Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. Julian Isherwood reports.

Both ruling Center Party and its coalition partners, the Social Democrats lost votes and for the Social Democratic Party this was a very bad election. The only government party to keep its position was the small Swedish People's Party. The electional result means that Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen who still leads the largest party in Parliament can choose to change his government into a center-right coalition instead of a center-left one. Julian Isherwood.

World news from the BBC.

An opposition member of Parliament in Zimbabwe, Nelson Chamisa has been beaten as he was about to board a plane for Europe. Mr Chamisa said several unidentified men knocked him unconscious at Harare Airport. Doctors say he has a fractured skull. The Minister of Information Sikhanyiso Ndlovu denied that state security forces were involved in the attack, saying the opposition was responsible for causing havoc in Zimbabwe. A spokesman for the African Union, Patrick Mazimhaka told the BBC that the AU was ready to mediate in the political crisis in Zimbabwe, but he said it had yet to receive an invitation from both parties.

"Such initiative, we get signals from the parties concerned and so far we have not got signal from the, the government of Zimbabwe or the opposition that in the such undertaking would be welcomed at the moment."

The BBC has thanked journalists who demonstrated in Gaza on Saturday to call for the safe return of the BBC correspondent there Alan Johnston. There has been no word on his whereabouts since he went missing on Monday. The Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Al-Burghouthi condemned his suspected abductors.

"We are against this kidnapping. We consider this kidnapping as an act of, of, as a criminal act that must stop immediately. I have been discussing this matter with the prime minister and with the president, and all the efforts are being made to make sure that Alan Johnston would come back safely to his family and to his job."

Reports from Afghanistan say an Italian journalist who was kidnapped nearly two weeks ago has been handed over to tribal elders. The Italian Foreign Ministry said it couldn't confirm the release of the journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo nor could his Newspaper La Repbblica. Spokesman for the Taliban said Mr. Mastrogiacomo and his Afghan translator had been transferred after the Afghan authorities released two Taliban detainees.

BBC world news.