U.S. & WORLD NEWS | Trump decides not to run in 2012

Trump decides not to run in 2012

NEW YORK

Donald Trump to self: You’re fired.

Out of the presidential race before he was officially in it, the celebrity real-estate mogul announced Monday he would not seek the 2012 Republican nomination. He could have won the White House, he said, but instead will continue to steer his business empire and remain host of his reality show “Celebrity Apprentice.”

The announcement, ending a colorful and attention-grabbing chapter in the unfolding GOP nominating race, surprised some strategists who said Trump had been assembling a campaign team and had been expected to announce his candidacy soon.

Giffords watches shuttle launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

A space shuttle took flight for the next-to-last time Monday as Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, still recovering from a gunshot wound and hidden from public view, watched her astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, rocket through the clouds in a deafening roar.

Giffords and the other crew families were described as awestruck and silent on the rooftop of the launch- control center.

“Good stuff, good stuff,” she said from her wheelchair when it was quiet again, according to a congressional aide.

Giffords joined the other five astronauts’ wives and children on top of the Kennedy Space Center building to watch Endeavour’s last voyage as NASA winds down the 30-year-old shuttle program.

Girl, 2, dies in collapse of building

MORRILTON, Ark.

A cosmetics store and a bridal boutique that was undergoing renovations collapsed in central Arkansas on Monday, killing a 2-year-old girl and injuring at least six other people.

Dozens of firefighters sifted through the wreckage left from the two-story brick building hours after rescuers pulled Alissa Jones’ body from the rubble and accounted for everyone else trapped inside, authorities said.

Investigators were trying to determine whether ongoing construction at one of the ground-level stores, which sold wedding gowns, was to blame for the collapse about 50 miles northwest of Little Rock. Authorities had not declared an official cause by Monday evening.

Rescue teams planned to dig through the debris overnight, in case someone was injured outside the building’s perimeter, authorities said. Some workers inserted tiny cameras into crevices between crumbled bricks to make sure no one else was trapped.

Associated Press