the news in brief

(MCT) MILWAUKEE, Wis. – If gun dealer Eric Thompson had his way, college students would carry… (MCT) MILWAUKEE, Wis. – If gun dealer Eric Thompson had his way, college students would carry more than just books.

In his vision, the next college shooter is thwarted by a student armed with one of Thompson’s guns – averting a massacre, saving lives.

Thompson’s Internet-based business TGSCOM Inc. sold weapons to the shooters at both Northern Illinois and Virginia Tech universities. First, he said, he felt grief for the victims. Then, a sense of resolve. Not to stop selling guns, but to advocate for guns on campus.

“The perfect situation is that nothing ever happens like that again,” Thompson said. “But in a last-ditch scenario, you are able to protect yourself.”

Now he is partnering with Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a national group that will hold an “empty-holster” protest next month against university gun-free zones. Thompson will donate holsters to the group.

Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, born after Virginia Tech, has grown to 22,000 members. And at least 14 states are considering legislation to allow concealed weapons on campus.

Critics decry the idea, saying it would only increase violence on campus. Educators have responded to high-profile college shootings by adding security measures such as text-message alerts and bolstering mental health services such as counseling and advising.

The movement faces a double hurdle in Wisconsin and Illinois – the only two states that bar concealed weapons for the public.

But that hasn’t stopped Students for Concealed Carry on Campus from sprouting up at Marquette and Lawrence universities and Madison Area Technical College.

Some 29 states bar concealed weapons on campus.

In other states, almost all universities ban concealed weapons. The only state that allows it is Utah, which has nine public campuses. – Erica Perez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

(MCT) HAVANA, Cuba – Imagine oil rigs drilling in deep waters just 45 miles off the coast of South Florida. Refineries process the oil in Cuba and sell it across the Caribbean and beyond. Canadian and Mexican companies supply billions of dollars in equipment and services.

This could happen, as Havana invites foreign companies to explore its probable oil and natural gas reserves while Washington’s embargo against the Communist-led island keeps U.S. companies locked out.

South Florida is watching closely, amid debate over drilling near its shores and concerns over U.S. energy policy. Oil companies increasingly seek to tap Cuba’s deep-water reserves, now that oil prices are soaring and profits more likely.

“In 34 years following Cuba, I’ve never seen an issue like this – so strategically important to the United States,” said Kirby Jones, president of Washington-based Alamar Associates.

Cuba is courting oil investors to slash its dependence on foreign fuels. The cash-strapped island can’t afford to import all it needs, especially at today’s oil prices topping $100 a barrel.

Experts say it will take several more years and hundreds of millions of dollars for the companies to figure out where to drill in waters often a mile deep. But if the pieces fall into place, offshore rigs could be working by 2012.

Today, U.S. companies are the only ones banned from Cuba, under terms of Washington’s 45-year embargo. – Doreen Hemlock, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

(MCT) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Yousuf Raza Gillani had been prime minister for only a few minutes Monday when he showed he was anything but the low-key politician he had been made out to be. “I order the immediate release of the arrested judges,” he announced in parliament.

The new parliament members thumped their desks and thundered, “Go, Musharraf, go,” a rallying cry over the past year for people who believe that it’s time for President Pervez Musharraf to leave office.

Within hours, the entire landscape of Pakistani politics had changed. For the first time since Musharraf declared an emergency and ordered top judges placed under house arrest Nov. 3, the country’s former chief justice and his family were able to step outside and wave at crowds of well-wishers.

And Gillani – a politician known for both his loyalty to slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and his ability to build consensus behind the scenes – had shown that he could step to the foreground and make eloquent speeches that could set the parliament on a collision course with Musharraf, the key U.S. ally in the war on terror who seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999.

Gillani, 55, the vice chairman of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, or PPP, which won the most seats in the parliamentary elections Feb. 18, was overwhelmingly elected prime minister Monday afternoon by a 264-42 vote.

The selection of Gillani capped months of speculation over who would be tapped for the powerful role, seen as crucial to the future of both the country and the increasingly unpopular Musharraf, whose supporters were soundly defeated in the Feb. 18 polls. – Kim Barker, Chicago Tribune