● Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel handed in his resignation on Monday, the first cabinet-level casualty of the collapse of President Obama’s Democratic majority in the Senate and the struggles of his national security team to respond to an onslaught of global crises.
● Administration officials said that Mr. Obama made the decision to remove Mr. Hagel, the sole Republican on his national security team, last Friday after a series of meetings between the two men over the past two weeks.
● The officials characterized the decision as a recognition that the threat from the militant group Islamic State will require different skills from those that Mr. Hagel, who often struggled to articulate a clear viewpoint and was widely viewed as a passive defense secretary, was brought in to employ.

PressTV: Hagel bows to pressure from White House

A leading computer security company says it has discovered one of the most sophisticated pieces of malicious software ever seen. ● Symantec says the bug, named Regin, was probably created by a government and has been used for six years against a range of targets around the world. Once installed on a computer, it can do things like capture screenshots, steal passwords or recover deleted files. Experts say computers in Russia, Saudi Arabia and Ireland have been hit most. It has been used to spy on government organisations, businesses and private individuals, they say. Researchers say the sophistication of the software indicates that it is a cyber-espionage tool developed by a nation state.

A planned, but as-of-yet not introduced bill is being hyped by Israel’s far-right coalition, which would give the Interior Ministry broad power to revoke the residency of Arabs deemed to be a threat to “state sovereignty.” Incredibly, the bill will also allow the ministry to expel their relatives, even if they haven’t done anything. Though it’s being couched as an “anti-terror” measure, the bill also covers people who the government perceives as “inciting violence” through speech or activism, as well as “rioters” and rock-throwers. And obviously all of their families. Interior Minister Gilad Erdan embraced the idea to give him this huge new power, which Jerusalem’s mayor couched as granting the Israeli government to nullify citizenship or residency of “bad people.” Naturally, the bill only applies to Arabs, and seems to be focused squarely on occupied East Jerusalem.

Irish Times: Israel approves law that makes country a Jewish state ● The Israeli cabinet has endorsed a controversial Bill enshrining Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, despite criticism by Israel’s Arab minority who fear the measure will leave them as second-class citizens. A divided cabinet voted 14-6 in favour of the Bill yesterday after a session that ministers described as a “shouting match”. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu reportedly banged on the table and said “it cannot be that Arabs can live in Jewish towns, but Jews can’t live in Arab towns. A country within a country is developing.” He said the law was needed because Palestinians refused to recognise Israel as a Jewish state and Israeli Arabs were seeking autonomy in the Galilee and the Negev.

Researchers — psychologists and social scientists, mostly — in the U.S. and United Kingdom say data indicate that, contrary to those mainstream media stereotypes, “conspiracy theorists” appear to be more sane than people who accept official versions of controversial and contested events. ● If you’re a conspiracy theorist, then you’re crazy, right? That’s been the common belief for years, but recent studies prove that just the opposite is true. Researchers — psychologists and social scientists, mostly — in the U.S. and United Kingdom say data indicate that, contrary to those mainstream media stereotypes, “conspiracy theorists” appear to be more sane than people who accept official versions of controversial and contested events. The most recent study was published in July 2013 by psychologists Michael J. Wood and Karen M. Douglas of the University of Kent in the UK. Entitled “‘What about Building 7?’ A Social Psychological Study of Online Discussion of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories,” the study compared “conspiracist,” or pro-conspiracy theory, and “conventionalist,” or anti-conspiracy, comments on news websites.

The Saker ■ On conspiracy theories and credibility

Old man breaks down seeing his wife and grandchild killed: I'll avenge
my granddaughter and wife. Ukraine explained: Eric Zuesse on AWIP

Russia’s Foreign Ministry regrets the U.S., Canada and Ukraine have voted against the UN resolution on fighting glorification of Nazism, and the EU countries’ delegations have abstained from voting. ● “Ukraine’s position is especially regretful. It is tough to realise how a country, which people had experienced the horrors of Nazism and had made a major input in the common Victory over it, could be voting against a document, which condemns is glorification,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement published on Saturday. “We hope adoption of this resolution will send a clear signal to the countries, which have been facing the necessity of most decisive measures to fight the growing attempts to glorify Nazism,” the statement reads.

Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-nazism and other practices...
The Saker ■ The US, Canada and the Ukraine refuse to condemn the heroization of Nazism

Ecuadorian President reportedly announced that his accounts have been a target of cyber attacks that came from the United States. ● According to the president, these attacks were aimed at gaining access to personal data. He noted that the attacks targeted the computers of the people closest to him. The newspaper added that back in October Correa said that "organized networks" carried out several cyber attacks from Colombia trying to extract information from the government. In September, Ecuadorian authorities announced plans to set up a Cyber Defense Command, which is to be established by mid-2015. The $8 million of funding was to be used to recruit staff and provide necessary software and hardware.

Occupied Jerusalem, SANA, Israeli occupation forces transported last night two wounded terrorists from Syria to Nahariya hospital in Western Galilee to the north of occupied Palestine in a daily violation of the UN Security Council’s resolutions which are related to countering terrorism. The Israeli Walla website reported Sunday “Last night two wounded were transported from Syria to Nahariya hospital as they suffered moderate-to-serious wounds.” The website indicated that “Nahariya hospital has treated 443 persons wounded in Syria so far.” Members of “Jabhat al-Nusra” terrorist organization spread in the disengagement zone, and they are supported by Israel in spite of the UN condemnation of terrorist crimes perpetrated by this organization.