A Ukrainian court sentenced a former security official to life in prison on Tuesday for the death of Georgy Gongadze, a journalist whose mysterious death in 2000 provoked an international outcry and helped set off protests against the president at the time, Leonid D. Kuchma. The former security official, Gen. Olexey Pukach, who once headed a surveillance department for Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, testified that he had not intended to kill Gongadze, but strangled him with a belt accidentally in the course of an interrogation. Gongadze went missing in September 2000 and his body was found two months later, beheaded, in a forest 75 miles from Kiev, the capital. He had infuriated the president with muckraking publications in Ukrainskaya Pravda, an Internet newspaper he had founded.

In the weeks since the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School, fringe conspiracy theorists have suggested that the shooting rampage there was staged or even perpetrated by the government to advance an anti-gun agenda—claims so absurd that even Glenn Beck has denounced them as preposterous. The fact that these theories have been circulating should not surprise us; tragedies frequently give rise to anti-government conspiracy myths (9/11, Waco, etc.). More surprising—and unfortunate—is how much attention some media outlets are devoting to these claims. While the coverage to date has generally sought to marginalize these conspiracy-mongers, it risks drawing more attention to their false claims and propagating the myth further.

Connie Grosch, a photojournalist laid off in November as part of broader cost-cutting at the Providence Journal, has been hired as the press secretary for Congressman David Cicilline. "I couldn't be more thrilled," says Grosch, who begins her new job next week. Grosch, a staple at the Statehouse for years, was one of three talented photographers let go as the ProJo sought to reduce spending by $1.2 million. She worked at the newspaper for almost 18 years. She was also a "long and active member" of the Providence Newspaper Guild, administrative officer Betsy Regan said.

The launch of a new press regulation body in Britain could be delayed due to fears that a new arbitration unit, recommended in the Leveson report, would spawn a new industry of "ambulance-chasing" lawyers seeking big money compensation from newspapers for breaches of the industry's code of ethics.