Gay rights in focus before UN vote

A culture war has broken out at the United Nations over whether gays should be singled out for the same protections as other minorities whose lives are threatened.

The battle will come to a head Tuesday when the General Assembly votes to renew its routine condemnation of the unjustified killing of various categories of vulnerable people.

It specifies killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious and other groups. But because of a change promoted by Arab and African nations and approved at committee level, this time around it drops a reference to "sexual orientation" and replaces it with "discriminatory reasons on any basis."

The United States says it will propose that the mention of "sexual orientation" be restored for the Tuesday vote.