IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Mexico

11 vigilantes die in shootout

A shootout between rival vigilantes in Michoacan state left 11 dead, authorities said on Tuesday. The federal government's security commissioner for the state, Alfredo Castillo, said the clash pitted two rival vigilante groups against each another in La Ruana, about 240 km from Morelia, the capital. Castillo did not elaborate on what provoked the shootout.

South Korea

Exec questioned over 'nut rage'

Prosecutors questioned Korean Air heiress and former senior executive Heather Cho Hyun-Ah on Wednesday about her fit of "nut rage" aboard a plane this month. The 40-year-old daughter of the airline's chief executive forced the cabin crew chief off a New York-to-Seoul flight and compelled the taxiing plane to return to the gate after she took exception to being served macadamia nuts she had not asked for - and in a bag, not a bowl.

Yemen

Rebels storm newspaper

Yemen's official news agency said the country's powerful Shiite rebels who control the capital, Sanaa, have stormed the building of the nation's main state newspaper and ousted the chief editor. SABA quoted the Information Ministry as saying al-Thawra's headquarters was overrun on Wednesday "to manipulate editorial policy".

European Union

Hamas taken off terror blacklist

Hamas must be removed from the EU's terrorism blacklist, but its assets will remain frozen, a European court ruled on Wednesday. The original listing in 2001 was based not on sound legal judgment but on conclusions derived from the media and the Internet, the General Court of the European Union said. But it stressed that Wednesday's decision does "not imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of Hamas as a terrorist group".

AFP - AP

(China Daily 12/18/2014 page11)