MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Rocks and fireworks flew from a crowd of
                  demonstrators in front of the U.S. Embassy on Saturday, setting off a clash
                  with riot police in Mexico City's famed Zona Rosa tourist district.

                  The protest started with several hundred university students gathering in front
                  of the embassy, shouting for the release of demonstrators arrested during the
                  recent World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle and to demand the
                  release of former Black Panther Mumia Abu Jamal.

                  Most of the protesters appeared to be radical members of the General
                  Strike Committee of the National Autonomous University, whose 268,000
                  students have been on strike since April.

                  Local radio stations reported that at least three photographers were injured
                  by rocks or by police and about 40 people were detained.

                  Abu Jamal faces a death sentence for the 1981 shooting of a Philadelphia
                  police officer. Some leftists organizations claim he was framed for the killing.

                  Some protesters burned a U.S. flag, at least one fired a small rockets at the
                  embassy and others hurled rocks at the building and at police guarding it. At
                  least one window of the embassy was broken. Police then charged to
                  disperse the crowd, dodging rocks and clubbing some protesters with their
                  plastic shields.

                  Chased by police, hundreds of protesters fled across the tree-lined 14-lane
                  Paseo de la Reforma boulevard, through the Zona Rosa, hurling rocks,
                  smashing windows and painting slogans such as "death to the evil
                  government" on building walls.

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.