Home Depot arrives in Jamaica, N.Y.

A deal that will bring Home Depot to Jamaica, N.Y. was officially announced on Feb. 10 by Massey Knakal Realty Services, a Manhattan based company.

The deal, worth $75 million dollars and which took three and a half years to negotiate, was struck between the Mattone Group of Whitestone, the Cerruzzi Holdings of Plainfield, Conn. and five other landlords.

The store, which will begin construction this spring for a Dec. 2007 opening, will be built on the former location of the Long Island Press at the intersection of Archer Ave. and 164th Street. The store will create about 300 jobs for the local community.

Students protest Pataki’s budget

Students at Queens College are protesting Governor George Pataki’s $110.7 billion Executive Budget which calls for tuition increases of $500 at SUNY schools and $300 at CUNY schools.

Additionally, the program also calls for annual tuition hikes and a reconfiguring of the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). However, Governor Pataki maintained that the program would support operations of New York schools.

Jamaica man convicted in barbershop shooting

A Jamaica man was found guilty of murder and criminal procession of a weapon in the 2002 shooting of Haij Buchanan, 25, of Jamaica.

Cory Sanders, 28, shot Buchanan in the back of his head in front of Butter Cutterz barbershop on Guy Brewer Blvd. Police discovered a sawed-off shotgun, .22-caliber revolver and ammunition, Blvd. and 134th Ave. in Jamaica.

Sanders was on inmate work release and was to report back to Lincoln Correctional Facility that same day.

Sanders will be sentenced on Feb. 21.

U.S. to remain in Iraq indefinitely

Despite a drop in manpower to approximately 100,000, American influence will remain in Iraq for an indefinite amount of time, according to military personnel.

U.S. generals have not set any definitive timetables, but indicated the average of insurgencies in the 20th century had lasted nine years.

The conflict in Iraq is approaching its third year.

Denmark to withdraw troops from Indonesia

In the aftermath of the cartoon controversy, Danish officials do not feel safe in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

The Danish foreign ministry announced that it had “information about reliable threats against staff at the embassy”. Danish officials also said that they had information that an extremist group planned to target them because of the cartoon.

Indonesian officials expressed discontent with Denmark’s plans.

Bush mentions Los Angeles terror plot

President George W. Bush has alerted the public of a failed al-Qaeda plan to fly a plane into the tallest building on the United States’ western coast in 2002.

Bush said the plot involved using shoe bombs to blow open the plane’s cockpit door. The believed target was a 73-story tower now known as the U.S. Bank Tower.

It was believed that the same man behind the September 11th attacks also orchestrated this plot.

With Times Ledger, Queens Courier, BBC and STL Today sources