$110,000 diamond ring stolen from mall

A diamond ring valued at $110,000 was stolen from a high-end jewelry store at The Mall at Chestnut Hill on Sunday afternoon, Newton police said. A suspect was caught on video at the Shreve Crump & Low store asking to see the 3.5-carat platinum diamond ring. When the clerk handed it over, the suspect fled to the parking lot. Witnesses reported that the man jumped into the passenger side of a green Jeep with a Bruins license plate and a Colby College sticker, according to police. The suspect is described as a white male in his late 20s or early 30s, about 6 feet tall, and weighing 190 pounds with a medium build.

A federal grand jury has indicted five men, including one from Massachusetts, on cocaine conspiracy charges, accusing four of them of being street gang members selling drugs through an audio installation business in suburban Atlanta. Federal officials said yesterday that Ricardo Larios-Trujillo, 33, Ramon Cortez, 20, and Homer Larios, 34, all of Lawrenceville, Ga.; Rigoberto Delgado-Orozco, 30, of Buford, Ga.; and Alexander I. Acher, 29, of Southborough, Mass., were also charged with possession with intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine. The US attorney's office said Larios-Trujillo, Delgado-Orozco, Cortez, and Larios belong to a street gang. (AP)

Attorney General Martha Coakley's office has reached a $1.3 million settlement with Berkshire Gas Co. over the loss of a natural gas supply contract in 2004. Under the agreement, Berkshire Gas residential customers will get credits totaling $1.25 million this winter. If approved by the Department of Public Utilities, each customer will see a $50 credit on their January 2009 bills. Customers will also see a total of $50,000 in credits next year. (AP)

A 44-year-old Gloucester woman was sentenced yesterday to a year in jail for providing alcohol to 12- and 13-year-old youths, Essex prosecutors said. Heidy Jordon pleaded guilty yesterday in Peabody District Court to charges of reckless endangerment of a child and procuring alcohol for a minor. Prosecutors said Jordon admitted going to the liquor store on June 8, 2007, to buy alcohol at the request of her 13-year-old daughter and then providing it to six youths at her Eastern Avenue residence. She did the same thing on June 22, 2007, for five youths, prosecutors said.

A Florida jury is expected to resume deliberations today in the state murder trial of retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr., who is accused of plotting with informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi to kill a Boston business consultant in 1982. The panel deliberated for seven hours yesterday. Connolly, 68, is accused of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of John B. Callahan. Flemmi testified that Connolly warned him and Bulger that the FBI planned to question Callahan and that the businessman probably would implicate the gangsters in a 1981 murder. Prosecutors argued that Connolly's tip was like signing Callahan's death warrant. The defense, however, said Connolly was an honorable man who never plotted to kill anyone.

Senator Judd Gregg, soon to be the lone Republican in New Hampshire's congressional delegation, said he looks forward to working with the new president and colleagues in the same bipartisan way in which Congress developed the financial rescue plan this fall. In a conference call with New Hampshire reporters early yesterday, Gregg said the rescue plan set a template for cooperation in which everyone entered the room with their own agendas but left on the same page. Gregg also said that he plans to run for reelection in 2010, but that in the meantime he will work toward a small and more efficient government, lower taxes, and tax and entitlement program reforms. (AP)