World datelines

Switzerland: Tear gas used

GENEVA — Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets Saturday to separate violent demonstrators from a protest of a meeting of top world trade officials, but the hooded "black bloc" activists were able to cause damage before 14 were arrested, spokesmen said. The protesters set fire to at least four cars, broke shop windows and committed other acts of violence Saturday, police spokesman Patrick Puhl said.

The clashes occurred during a march by demonstrators protesting a meeting of the World Trade Organization scheduled to start Monday, in which the United States, China and other commercial powers will spearhead a new attempt to find ways to revive world trade and drag the global economy out of recession.

Bangladesh: Ferry sinks

DHAKA — Rescuers searched inside the submerged cabins of a triple-deck ferry Sunday for scores of people believed to be missing after it capsized near a dock in southern Bangladesh, killing at least 40, authorities said.

The M.V. Coco, traveling from the capital Dhaka, was packed with hundreds of travelers heading home for an Islamic festival when it went down late Friday as it arrived at Nazirhat town in the coastal district of Bhola, 64 miles to the south.

Rescuers recovered three more bodies from the partially submerged boat today, raising the death toll to 40, police official Mohammad Bayezid said.

Some survivors said the boat hit a river shoal as it approached the terminal, breaking the hull and allowing water in.

China: American jailed

BEIJING — An American man wanted for ecoterrorism attacks in the western United States has been sentenced to three years in a Chinese prison for making illegal drugs.

Justin Franchi Solondz, 30, was given the sentence Friday, said an official at the intermediate court in Dali city, in southwestern China's Yunnan province, who gave his family name as Zhao.

It was unclear what drugs Solondz was found guilty of producing.

Solondz was indicted in California and Washington state in 2006 in connection with a series of arsons attributed to "the Family," a collection of radical environmentalists aligned with the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts, from 1996-2001.

Shanghai: Plane crash

SHANGHAI — A cargo plane crashed as it took off from Shanghai's main airport Saturday, killing three American crew members and injuring four other employees after it veered off the runway and burst into flames.

Three Americans on the seven-member crew died and a fourth U.S. citizen was injured, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Buangan told The Associated Press. He did not know the injured person's condition.

The TV report said the other crew were from Indonesia, Belgium and Zimbabwe.

Saudi Arabia: Fatal floods