The United States is coming under fire from members of the U.N. Security Council after it removed the only complete copy of Iraq’s arms declaration from U.N. headquarters soon after it arrived. On Friday, the 15 nations of the Security Council agreed to hold off on receiving the document until U.N. experts had screened it to delete information that could help make a nuclear weapon. The process was to take seven to 10 days. But The New York Times is reporting that Secretary of State General Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice decided they did not want to wait. Powell then requested preferential treatment from Colombia’s ambassador to the United Nations, who’s temporarily serving as the Security Council president. A Colombian diplomat acknowledged his government had made a political decision to help the U.S. Just last week, Powell visited Colombia to announce the U.S. aid to Colombia would increase by $200 million annually. Officially, the United States said it took the document to Washington because it had better photocopying equipment to duplicate the 12,000-page report. The U.S. has also taken charge of handing out copies to the permanent members, all of whom are nuclear powers, and editing versions to be given to the rotating members, who are not nuclear powers. The Syrian ambassador has led the protest against Washington’s actions. He expressed fear that the U.S. and other permanent members may now declare Iraq to be in material breach of U.N. Resolution 1441 before nonpermanent members even see the report.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has warned of the potentially catastrophic consequences of a preemptive U.S. war on Iraq. The comments came in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo. Carter did not mention either country by name, but said, “For powerful countries to adopt a principle of preventative war may well set an example that can have catastrophic consequences.”

A federal judge threw out a lawsuit brought by the investigative arm of Congress that sought to compel the White House to produce records of meetings between Vice President Dick Cheney and energy policy executives. The General Accounting Office has argued that Cheney should be compelled to disclose the names of lobbyists and oil company executives he consulted in drafting energy policy last year on the basis that the policy should be subject to public scrutiny. Among others, it is known he met repeatedly with Enron officials. The judge said the lawsuit engendered an unprecedented struggle between the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government.

Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott has apologized for implying the country would have been better off had Strom Thurmond won the presidency when he ran in 1948 on a segregationist ticket. Last week, Lott recalled how his home state of Mississippi voted for Thurmond when he ran on an anti-civil rights platform. “We’re proud of it,” Lott said at Thurmond’s 100th birthday party, adding, “If the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years.” While Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle came to Lott’s defense, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and former Vice President Al Gore called for Lott to step down. Al Gore called his comments racist. Lott apologized, saying he used a poor choice of words that may have conveyed he embraced such policies of the past. He added, “Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by my statement.” However, Lott has long had close ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens, which formed to succeed the segregationist White Citizens’ Councils of the 1960s. In 1992, Lott told members of the council, “The people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy. Let’s take it in the right direction, and our children will be the beneficiaries.”

In Washington, an economic watchdog group says President Bush has chosen a “champion corporate tax dodger” to serve as secretary of treasury. Yesterday, Bush nominated John Snow, the head of railroad giant CSX, to replace Paul O’Neill, who was forced to resign last week. According to the Citizens for Tax Justice, CSX has paid no federal income tax in three of the last four years, this despite raking in close to $1 billion in profits. During the same time period, CSX received $164 million in tax rebate checks from the federal government.

More than 100 stars in the entertainment world have formed Artists United to Win Without War and plan to send an antiwar letter to President George Bush today. The signees include Martin Sheen, Barbra Streisand, Kim Bassinger, Harry Belafonte, Matt Damon, Uma Thurman and Danny Glover. Edward Peck, the former United States ambassador to Iraq, is among some of the non-Hollywood signatories.

In India, some 5,000 people have been detained in the western state of Gujarat ahead of Thursday’s elections. Police say security has also been tightened dramatically with the deployment of 170,000 security personnel. Earlier this year, the state witnessed major religious violence, which killed up to 2,000 people, mainly Muslims. The victims were killed in riots sparked after a mob, believed to be predominantly Muslim, torched a train carrying Hindu hard-liners on February 27, killing 58 people.

United Airlines, the nation’s second-largest airline with 80,000 employees, has declared bankruptcy. It’s the largest bankruptcy in the history of the airline industry.