By Eric Moskowitz, Glen Johnson, Katie Johnston, John R. Ellement and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

A fire that began in a battery in the underbelly of a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 jetliner at Logan International Airport this morning filled the plane’s cabin with heavy smoke just minutes after passengers had disembarked, Massport officials said today. Flight 8 arrived from Tokyo at about 10:15 a.m. carrying 173 passengers and 11 crew members, Massport aviation director Edward Freni said. After passengers left the plane through the jetbridge, at about 10:30 a.m., airline mechanics reported smoke.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

A downed wire from an Amtrak train, which slowed much of Boston’s commuter rail and Amtrak transit this morning, could also affect the evening commute, officials said. This morning, passengers on 39 inbound and 22 outbound trains on six commuter rail lines, as well as six Amtrak trains, experienced delays ranging from 20 minutes to over an hour during peak service hours.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The Boston City Council voted overwhelmingly Monday to give Stephen J. Murphy his third consecutive term as the body’s president. Murphy captured 12 votes from his colleagues on the 13-member City Council. Councilor Charles Yancey voted for himself.

By Globe Staff

A body was found today in East Boston and police are now investigating the circumstances of the person’s death.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

Members of the arson squad are investigating the cause of eight cars apparently set on fire early this morning in West Roxbury, the Boston Police Department said.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

The week is off to a mild start, with today’s highs in the upper 30s, and tomorrow looking even better, the National Weather Service said.

By Travis Andersen, Derek Anderson and Gal Tziperman Lotan, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondents

Weekend fires in Chelmsford, Holyoke, and Winchendon claimed the lives of four people, authorities said. “It’s a very tragic weekend for us,” said State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan. The Chelmsford blaze started shortly after 11 p.m. on the fourth-floor of a condominium building at 181 Littleton Road. It tore through the building and left a disabled man and a woman dead and four others injured, including a 7-year-old boy. In Holyhoke, a teenage girl was killed Saturday and in Winchendon, a 70-year-old man died Friday.

, Globe Staff

A 70-year-old man was found dead after a two-alarm house fire Friday night in Winchendon, officials said. Winchendon firefighters arrived at a 2½-story wood-frame house at 95 Beachview Drive at about 7 p.m. to find the home engulfed in flames, Winchendon Fire Chief Thomas Smith said.

, Globe Staff

One woman was rescued and another was found dead after a two-alarm fire in Holyoke early Saturday, authorities said. The fire that destroyed a two-story, bungalow-style home at 28 Glen St. was reported at 6:29 a.m., Lieutenant Thomas Paquin of the Holyoke Fire Department said. The victim’s name was not released.

By Chris Stuck-Girard, Globe Correspondent

Flurries are possible tonight and Sunday night, and a warming trend is on tap for southern New England, with temperatures rising into the 40s on Tuesday and beyond, according to the National Weather Service. In the near term, Saturday and Sunday will be mostly dry with highs slightly above the seasonal average, said National Weather Service meteorologist Kim Buttrick today. The forecast calls for highs in the upper 30s in the Boston area, with temperatures a few degrees lower to the west.

By Jennette Barnes, Globe Correspondent

The Norton School Committee interviewed four finalists for superintendent on Saturday and decided to wait until Monday to determine its next move

By Derek J. Anderson, Globe Correspondent

A Brockton man was arrested for his eighth drunk driving offense on Thursday night, according to the Avon Police Department. William Doten, 65, was arrested in Avon around 10 p.m. Thursday when police responded to his to a red Chevy pick up truck stopped in the middle of road at 359 West Main Street, said Avon police Chief Warren Phillips.

By Jeff Fish, Globe Correspondent

The Chelsea Street Bridge will be closed every night next week and all next weekend for mechanical and electrical systems calibration and adjustments, according to a statement from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The bridge, which crosses the Chelsea Creek on the Chelsea/Boston line, will be closed to cars and pedestrians every night from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. beginning Sunday and will be closed all next weekend—from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday.

By Dan Adams, Globe Correspondent

Hundreds of Elizabeth Warren supporters turned out this afternoon for a ceremonial swearing-in of the state’s newest senator at Roxbury Community College. Warren officially joined the 113th Congress Thursday at a ceremony in Washington, but decided to re-enact the event locally for supporters. Warren, who garnered a reputation on the campaign trail as a firebrand, didn’t disappoint the crowd, giving an emotional speech in which she thanked supporters and vowed to be a force for the state.

By Kathleen Burge, Globe Staff

LYNN -- Politicians, relatives, and residents of Lynn, where Thomas W. McGee lived most of his 88 years, filled St. Mary’s Church this morning to remember the state’s longest-serving speaker of the House. “He watched his mother labor in the shoe factories of this city and emerge as a union organizer, understanding that we all strive for the same thing: a good job and a living wage, a decent roof over our heads, and the chance for a little bit better life for our children,” said his daughter, Colleen McGee Kavanaugh.

By Jeff Fish, Globe Correspondent

The Chelsea Street Bridge will be closed every night next week and all next weekend for mechanical and electrical systems calibration and adjustments, according to a statement from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The bridge, which crosses the Chelsea Creek on the Chelsea/Boston line, will be closed to cars and pedestrians every night from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. beginning Sunday and will be closed all next weekend—from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

Firefighters rescued a deer stranded on the ice at the Cambridge Reservoir in Waltham on Friday afternoon, but the animal was in such poor condition that it later had to be euthanized. Helicopter video footage shot by local TV stations showed two rescuers struggling to grab the stranded deer, an adult female that they had reached in an ice rescue sled. The crew worked for more than 15 minutes to secure the animal, and the crew managed to pull it to shore by 12:50 p.m.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

The former headmaster of an elite North Andover prep school said Friday that reports that he had an inappropriate relationship with a student and had hired escorts had caused him and his wife “great pain, sadness and embarrassment.” Lawrence Becker, the headmaster at the Brooks School from 1986 to 2008, said in a statement released by his lawyer that the school’s disclosure “encourages serious questions and speculation about my relationships with students over the years.”

By Todd Feathers, Globe Correspondent

Peabody police are investigating a nonfatal shooting on Washington Street Thursday night. At 8:55 p.m. police responded to reports of possible gunshots at 197 Washington St. and found a male victim with a gunshot wound to his thigh, Peabody police said in a statement. The victim was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

Two New Hampshire brothers jumped into action Thursday night after a man on their pickup men’s hockey league team collapsed on the ice. With five minutes left in the game, Jake MacGlashing, 32, of Rye and his brother Jesse, 37, of Pittsfield saw a teammate fall to the ice of a rink in Rochester, N.H., having what first appeared to be a seizure.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue said today it had removed the $5,475 tax lien against embattled Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua for unpaid 2011 state income taxes. The department had issued the lien after Lantigua did not respond to several notices over the past six months. The amount includes $710 in penalties and interest. The revenue department removes liens when the overdue amount is paid in full or the department determines the money was not owed.

By Glen Johnson and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick announced today he was nominating outgoing Public Safety Secretary Mary Elizabeth Heffernan as a district court judge. Heffernan, who has helmed the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security since 2010, had recently been in the news. She acknowledged serious flaws in the hiring of the state’s highway safety director despite the fact that Sheila Burgess’s driving record included crashes, speeding violations, and other infractions.

By Brian Ballou, Globe Staff

The former president of a union representing more than 300 MBTA workers was sentenced today to six months in jail for stealing $105,812 from the organization’s bank account during his tenure. He was the second top official convicted of stealing from the union. A Suffolk Superior Court jury on Dec. 19 found John Horan guilty of two counts of larceny for overpaying himself between 2005 and 2010, using the bank account of the MBTA Inspectors Union Local 600.

By Todd Feathers, Globe Correspondent

Peabody police are investigating a nonfatal shooting on Washington Street last night. At 8:55 p.m. police responded to reports of possible gunshots at 197 Washington St. and found a male victim with a gunshot wound to his thigh, Peabody police said in a statement. The victim was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital.

By Lauren Dezenski and John R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff

Today’s commute largely went off without a hitch, in sharp contrast to Thursday, which was filled with transit delays thanks to the season’s coldest weather yet, officials said. Out of 129 trains, only one, on the Green Line, experienced a mechanical problem this morning, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo, compared with 10 trains affected Thursday.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

The cold weather that chilled commuters and hampered the region’s public transit system this week will largely disappear this weekend, and temperatures are projected to reach 50 degrees by the middle of next week, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures in the Boston area will top out at 36 degrees, although sustained winds of 15 miles per hour will add a slight wind chill.

By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick’s administration will delay its long-awaited transportation finance plan to the Legislature by a week, submitting it Jan. 14 instead of this coming Monday, the deadline written into the law that provided emergency funding for the MBTA last year, according to multiple people briefed on the delay.

By Todd Feathers, Globe Correspondent

A Milford father and son are facing charges after police responded to a domestic dispute call at the father’s house and allegedly found an unsecured handgun in a room next door to two small children. Charles F. Nadeau, 58, and his son Jason M. Nadeau, 28, will be summonsed to court on charges that include improper storage of guns and possession of high-capacity clips, police said.

By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff

An 18-year-old man killed after he was struck in both the north and southbound lanes of Route 128 in Newton today has been identified as a Malden resident who worked at a nearby rest stop. Reishaun Michael Hopkins was employed by the Honey Dew Donuts located in the Newton rest area and was normally scheduled to work day shift, State Police said this afternoon.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A remarkably stronger Mayor Thomas M. Menino held court today in his office at City Hall, speaking with new vigor about his plans for Boston, reflecting on his eight-week hospitalization, and suggesting that he may indeed seek a sixth term this fall. “I still have the energy,” Menino told a half-dozen reporters when asked if he would seek reelection. “If I believe I can make a difference and move the city forward, that’s my future.”

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick today signed a bill into law that will allow domestic violence and sexual assault victims to vacate their lease or rental agreements without financial penalties. The bill, “An Act Relative to Housing Rights for Victims of Domestic Violence, rape, sexual assault, and Stalking,” also allows victims to bring up their situation as a defense in eviction proceedings, the governor’s office said.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

Two ducks are in luck today after being rescued from a Lowell canal, officials said. The Lowell Fire Department was called at 1:42 p.m. and spent 45 minutes working to approach the ice-bound ducks, said Bob Flynn, deputy fire chief. Three fire companies responded to the canal near 130 Central St., though nobody needed to physically pull the ducks from the water. “We just had to get close and shoo them away,” Flynn said.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Just a few days after announcing his reelection bid, Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua has been served with a $5,475 tax lien for failing to pay state income tax in 2011. The state revenue department last week filed the lien against Lantigua, whose three-year tenure has been dogged by controversy and a corruption investigation. A spokeswoman said the department took the step after Lantigua did not respond to several notices over at least six months. “When we file a lien, it means we have not heard from a taxpayer,” said spokeswoman Ann Dufresne.

By Todd Feathers, Globe Correspondent

Three Northern lapwings, European shore birds that seldom stray into the Western hemisphere, were apparently blown across the Atlantic into Massachusetts by the chaotic winds of Hurricane Sandy and are now in danger of succumbing to the cold New England winter, a bird expert said. The rare birds, with their colorful plumage and odd-looking head feathers, have drawn bird enthusiasts from across the country.

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

Massachusetts lawmakers and constitutional officers will start the new legislative session with a pay cut -- an automatic reduction triggered by a dip in median household income over the past two years, according to the state Executive Office of Administration and Finance. The members of the House and Senate will see a 1.8 percent drop in pay, as will the governor and lieutenant governor, treasurer, auditor and secretary of state.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

The parents of a Boston-based foreign correspondent who has gone missing in Syria appealed publicly today to his presumed captors to release him. James Foley, 39, has been missing since Thanksgiving Day. Foley’s father, John, urged “the people who have him” to let his family know his condition and his whereabouts ­-- and to help the family get him freed.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

A 25-year-old South Boston man is facing charges of illegal possession of a gun and ammunition after being arrested with a Calico M-100 rifle and 48 rounds of ammunition Tuesday evening, Suffolk County prosecutors said. Alexis A. Laboy was arrested in Dorchester after police responded to a 911 call of a man with a gun at the intersection of Kemp Street and Father Songin Way.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

This morning’s bitter cold is being blamed for mechanical failures that caused delays on subways, commuter trains, and on some Boston school buses. Temperatures were in the single digits across Eastern Massachusetts during the morning commute with Boston dropping down to 8 degrees. Beverly fell to 5 degrees, and in Bedford, it was the smallest single digit, 1 degree.

By Lauren Dezenski and Martin Finucane, Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff

Hear that sound? It may be your teeth chattering. Massachusetts is dropping into the deep freeze. The coldest night of the season so far is expected with temperatures dropping below zero in parts of the interior, the National Weather Service says. The cold will be particularly intense north of the Massachusetts Turnpike and west of I-495 with the mercury potentially dropping to 10 below zero in colder valleys of northwestern Massachusetts and southwestern New Hampshire, the forecasters said.

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Lawyers for former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi said in court papers filed this week that the former Beacon Hill powerbroker was wrongly convicted of corruption in 2011, arguing that he did not accept bribes as federal prosecutors contend. In a brief filed with the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, DiMasi’s lawyers wrote that prosecutors failed to prove that money funneled to him from a software company salesman through his former law partner, Steven Topazio, amounted to bribery.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

A woman was struck and killed by a Boston-bound Acela train passing through Attleboro around 1:20 p.m. today, officials say. The incident happened near Newport Avenue and the South Attleboro train station. “It’s unclear why she was on the Acela tracks,” said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. MBTA Transit Police are now investigating the matter.

By Todd Feathers, Globe Correspondent

Acton veterinarians brought a young Labrador retriever named Grit back from the brink of freezing to death, after she was trapped in icy water for what could have been several hours. Dr. Janice Bernhart, one of the Acton Animal Emergency Care Center veterinarians who saved the two-year-old dog, said Grit was near death and having seizures when she was brought to the center around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

By Todd Feathers, Globe Correspondent

Singer Patti Page, who died New Year’s Day, had a connection to Cape Cod — celebrating it in a song that described it as a land of sand dunes, salty air, and quaint little villages. Page, who was 85, rose to stardom in the 1950s with songs like “Tennessee Waltz.” But it was her song “Old Cape Cod” that first advertised the Cape as a vacation gem, said Wendy Northcross, head of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.

By Brian Ballou and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

The Brighton man accused of committing the first murder in Boston this year was defending himself after he was attacked by one of the hosts of a New Year’s party in Allston, the man’s defense attorney said today. Brian MacDonald, 24, pleaded not guilty to a murder charge today in Brighton Municipal Court. Judge David T. Donnelly set bail at $500,000 cash, a much higher amount than the $10,000 bail requested by MacDonald’s attorney, Thomas Hoopes.

By Martine Powers and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Norwell Fire Chief T. Andrew Reardon says he is proud of his department’s rescue of three 14-year-old boys who were trapped for hours in a swamp in chest-high water Tuesday night. The combination of high water and low-hanging tree branches made it impossible for the rescuers to deploy an airboat, Reardon said today. And an airborne rescue by the Coast Guard wasn’t an option, because the boys were near high-tension power lines, so the Coast Guard could not safely deploy a helicopter with a rescue basket, he said.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

A woman was struck and killed by a Boston-bound Acela train passing through Attleboro around 1:20 p.m. today, officials say. The incident happened near Newport Avenue and the South Attleboro train station. “It’s unclear why she was on the Acela tracks,” said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. MBTA Transit Police are now investigating the matter.

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

The New Hampshire family of James Foley, a Boston-based foreign correspondent, announced today that Foley was kidnapped on Thanksgiving Day while on assignment in Syria, and remains missing. Foley, 39, reportedly was taken by unidentified gunmen in the northwest of the country, the family said in a statement. The family said they hoped to build support for his release.

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

Methuen police have closed a city hill to sledding after three sled crashes there, including one so serious that a woman had to be transported by medical helicopter to a Boston hospital. Over the weekend, a 22-year-old, 17-year-old, and 11-year-old were all injured while sledding on the popular hill at Greycourt Park.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Massachusetts House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo says that in the wake of the Connecticut school massacre, he wants to bring together the members of the state House with outside experts to study the “dangerous intersection of guns and mental illness in schools and throughout society.” He said solutions would be attempted on the federal level but “I believe we must do what we can on the state level as well.”

By Globe Staff

US District Judge Richard Stearns has given the attorneys for notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger extra time to file paperwork defending Bulger’s claim that he was authorized by federal law enforcement officials to commit crimes in return for working as an informant. Bulger’s attorneys, in court papers filed New Year’s Eve, said they need until Jan. 11 to lay out their arguments because they are also dealing with a writ of mandamus before the First Circuit Court of Appeals.