Wedding Bells for Popular British Boxer Ricky Hatton

Popular British boxer Ricky Hatton is getting married to his former childhood acquaintance, Jennifer Dooley. But will Ricky tie the knot before he tangles with Manny Pacquiao on May 2, 2009?

Ricky has not disclosed the date of wedding but last valentine’s day he proposed to Jennifer and gifted her with a large diamond ring.

Telegarph.uk reports: ‘They are yet to name a date for the wedding but celebrity friends Wayne and Coleen Rooney and guitarist Noel Gallagher will be on the guest list.

‘Hatton and Dooley first met first as five-year olds at Rosehill primary school in Manchester. They lost touch afterwards, but were later reintroduced by his brother’s girlfriend, and have been together now for three years’, the report added.

Jennifer, who works as lecturer back in Manchester, is a stunning brunette beauty and could be mistaken as a model.

Ricky said that Jennifer is always present in his boxing engagements and he said it means a lot to him.

Hatton is scheduled to square off with popular Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao on May 2, 2009 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The popular British boxer is scheduled to meet with Manny Pacquiao late this month in UK to promote their forthcoming fight. They will later travel to New York and California for the promotional requirements of the fight.

They are expected report to their respective training camps soon after their promotional tour to start training for the May 2 engagement.

Suspect in slaying posed as condo buyer

Their fateful meeting at the high-rise Midtown condo complex —- the prominent cancer researcher and the young man described by police as a two-bit criminal —- was nothing but chance.

Eugenia “Jeanne” Calle, who had a condo on the Aqua building’s 20th floor, was walking her gray poodle.

Shamal Thompson, 22, fresh off a meal at a nearby Checkers fast-food restaurant, wandered in under the pretense of shopping for condos in the luxury building that boasts private elevators, around-the-clock security and skyline-view homes that cost as much as $2.5 million.

Calle, 57, undoubtedly thought she was seizing on an opportunity to sell her condo. But it was Thompson, police say, who was looking for opportunity.

Early Thursday morning, authorities arrested Thompson and charged him with beating Calle to death as she showed him around her penthouse condo. After the killing, and after he went on a spending spree with Calle’s credit cards, Thompson got bolder, returning to the scene of the crime late Wednesday night and trying to con his way back inside her condo, police said.

“He was extremely brazen,” said Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows, commander of the department’s homicide unit. “It’s a little unsettling when people are that bold. I can’t even put it into words.”

Just two weeks into retirement, Calle wanted to sell her condo so she could move in with her fiance.

While crossing through Aqua’s lobby, she overheard Thompson and a real-estate agent chatting about taking a tour of two condos that were for sale, Meadows said.

“She said, ‘Don’t forget about mine. It’s for sale, also,’ ” Meadows said.

Thompson didn’t. After the tour, a security guard called Calle and said that Thompson was in the lobby.

“Would you like for me to escort him up?” the guard asked Calle, according to Meadows.

“No, it’ll be fine,” Calle responded. “I don’t want him to think that we don’t trust him.”

Thompson, who also goes by Jamal Thompson, headed up on his own around 2 p.m. Thursday.

He spent 20 to 30 minutes in the unit before hitting Calle on the back of the head with an unknown object in the kitchen, Meadows said.

Thompson told a police detective after his arrest that he pushed Calle and that she hit her head on the kitchen counter. He told police he didn’t know she had died, Meadows said.

He dragged her into the pantry, took a diamond ring off her finger, about $68 in cash, her credit cards and her condo electronic swipe card before leaving, Meadows said. She died from blunt force trauma.

Calle’s body was discovered about nine hours later, around 11 p.m. Tuesday, by her fiance, an Atlanta tax attorney whose name has not been released.

It’s not clear whether Thompson seriously intended to buy a home in Aqua or had the money to do so. Meadows said he suspects Thompson wanted to case the condos for valuables and didn’t realize beforehand that the first two were vacant.

Surveillance footage captured Thompson on camera, but he had given a fake name to the real estate agent, Meadows said. He had used his own cellphone to set up the condo viewings, however, and police subpoenaed his phone records.

Detectives had already identified Thompson as the suspect and were actively looking for him when he returned late Wednesday night with two unwitting friends to the Aqua building, located at the corner of West Peachtree and 10th streets.

With Calle’s swipe card in hand, he tried to get back inside, claiming Calle’s condo was his, presumably to steal more property, Meadows said. But security guards became suspicious and turned him away. A security guard took down the license plate of his vehicle and called police.

He was arrested four hours later, at 3 a.m. Thursday, at a friend’s house off Fairburn Road in southwest Atlanta, where the U.S. Marshals Service had tracked him. Thompson had used her credit cards at numerous stores in the Atlantic Station and Lenox areas, buying clothes, a $400 watch, tennis shoes and other items. He gave Calle’s ring to a woman, and police have since recovered it, Meadows said.

Thompson, who has been arrested previously for burglary, is charged with murder and robbery by force. At his first court appearance Thursday he was ordered held without bond. A preliminary hearing has been set for March 6.

Court and arrest records indicate Thompson has several prior arrests, stretching back to his high school days in Gwinnett County.

Records listed Thompson as a student at Meadowcreek High School when he was arrested in Gwinnett in May 2005 for theft by taking and theft by receiving, in connection with a stolen Toyota Corolla. He pleaded guilty to one count of theft by receiving and was sentenced to five years of probation.

DeKalb County jail records show at least two arrests, one of which resulted in conviction.

In 2006, Thompson was arrested by DeKalb police on burglary charges. He was sentenced last April to 10 years in prison, with six months to serve. He was credited with about two months’ time served and the sentence was reduced to time served, court records show.

A renowned epidemiologist, Calle retired last month from her post as vice president of the epidemiology department at the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society. Her research in epidemiology, which is the study of disease, helped establish the link between cancer and obesity, and cancer and diet

Love and care to replace expensive gifts on Valentine Day

Celebrations for ‘Festival of Love', Valentine Day is on globally. It is the time when love birds surpass all others emotions and display the love for each others with various means.

But this time when whole world is witnessing recession, the ‘Festival of Love' will not be spared from the impact of global meltdown.

Will love succumb to recession this time? No, definitely not.

A Delhi based trader has ordered Rs 24, 000 bouquet for his beloved one on this Valentine.

But the pockets of teenaged lovebirds, who have to please their valentine with costly rose buds, chocolates and treat at posh restaurants this year, have been severely affected.

However, love had never been bowed down to any circumstances in past and will never do this time too. Solutions are available here for costly gifts. The number of roses in the bouquet are reduced this time and expensive gifts are replaced with love, affection, care and commitment in relationships.

A Delhi-based florist says selling of rose buds and bouquet are on but not as much as last year.

If you are in deep love with someone and facing difficulties to carry out costlier date to celebrate Valentine Day, don't worry, just say ‘I Love You' to you beloved one.

Your love, affection and care is the best gift for your spouse. It doesn't make any sense to spend thousands expensive gifts like diamond rings, necklaces and iPods.

Just shower your love and affection on her she will be happiest one on this Valentine Day.

"He's Just Not That Into You" highlights differences between men and women

Spoiler alert: Though I don't go into many details, some of this blog entry will spoil the ending of the latest chick flick. However, I am not sure how much it can ruin the experience, really -- isn't there the same tidy, happy ending in all romance comedies?

Want to know how men and women think differently?

Go see "He's Just Not That Into You" with a member of the opposite sex and closely watch his or her face at its conclusion. You'll learn a whole lot.

At least that's what I discovered after attending a screening of the film with my boyfriend the other night. (He's definitely a good sport for coming.)

Throughout the film, we were whispering to each other about which characters would end up together at the end of the movie. 

His take was always "he's just not that into her." Me being a woman, I was hoping for the perfect happy ending, no matter how farfetched it seemed. 

By the conclusion, things pretty much wrapped up how I predicted. The not-so-hot dudes didn't land the fantasy girls. And the pretty, but not glamorous women seeking love got what they wanted.

But, I hate to admit, the ending was a bit forced. Particularly when (and read no further if you hate knowing any details of a film you're about to see, starting ... now) moments after Neil insists he never wants to marry, he hides a diamond ring for his girlfriend to find and pops the question.

(Cue tears from female audience members.)

"Oh, no!" the man sitting next to my boyfriend cried out, horror written all over his face.

Ironically, it was the same look audience members had while watching the gory fight scene in another movie I recently attended, "The Wrestler." In it, Mickey Rourke's character and his opponent use various weapons, including thumbtacks, staple guns, barbed wire and glass, against each other.

"Ooooowww," the audience whimpered, realizing how much pain barbed wire sliced on bare skin would cause. I couldn't watch myself, but seeing my boyfriend's face contort in ways I've never seen before, it had to be gruesome.

The guy at "He's Just Not That Into You" was equally disgusted. 

"Come on," he voiced his frustrations, not believing Neil just caved in. He didn't seem to notice his girlfriend eyeing him suspiciously, trying to voice her annoyance without saying a word.

I'm sure they had an interesting dinner conversation afterward.

The controvertial planning appeal was voted on by 10 out of 11 An Bord Pleanala members

An Bord Pleanla ruled nine-to-one against Sean Dunne’s €1.5 billion high-rise development in Ballsbridge.

The near-unanimous vote raises further questions as to why Dublin city council ever approved the billionaire businessman’s plans for a massive residential, retail and office development on the seven-acre site of the former Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels.

A number of objectors are now calling on John Gormley, the environment minister, to investigate the city planners’ handling of the application.

Labour councillors in Dublin want an independent inquiry. Kevin Humphreys said: “There is a growing gap between the development plan, which was drawn up to defend residents’ interests, and the decisions being made by officials.

“A number of recent cases suggest that officials’ interpretation of the plan are becoming more liberal. In the case of Dunne’s application, it’s difficult to understand the logic behind approving it.”

Dunne’s vision for a cluster of high-rise buildings set around a 32-storey tower was embraced by the council’s senior planner, Kieran Rose, who recommended that the scheme be granted permission. In a report for the city manager, Rose described the scheme’s “diamond-cut” tower as “exciting.”

But Tom Rabbette, the board’s inspector who chaired an often heated month-long hearing into the project, found Dunne’s scheme contravened the local development plan.

The board’s final assessment was that the scheme’s “scale, massing and height” constituted a “gross over-development and over-intesification of use” of the site and said it was “not satisifed that the proposed development would bring about a high-quality environment for future occupants”. It also ruled that the development constituted a “radical change in the urban form of the area [and would be] at odds with the established character of Ballsbridge”.

A full appeals board typically only sits on decisions of strategic or national importance, with most of the 5,000 to 6,000 cases adjudicated every year decided by four or fewer members.

The Sunday Times understands 10 of the 11-member board voted. Only Margaret Byrne, formerly a principal officer in the Department of the Environment, was absent. The chairman, John O’Connor,was previously an assistant secretary in the same department

Mountbrook Homes, Sean Dunne’s construction company, announced on Friday night that it intends to submit a revised application “in accordance with the primarily residential zoning” of the Ballsbridge site. Dunne criticised the planning system as “lengthy, expensive, confusing and unworkable”.