EDGE Boston

Foreign ministers and defense chiefs from the Latin American countries that have more than 12,000 peacekeepers in Haiti called a meeting to consider how the alleged sex abuse of a Haitian teenager by Uruguayan sailors might affect the U.N. mission.

The United Nations, Haiti and Uruguay are investigating allegations that U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay sexually abused an 18-year-old Haitian man, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The United Nations endorsed the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender people for the first time ever Friday, passing a resolution hailed as historic by the U.S. and other backers and decried by some African and Muslim countries.

The United Nations is poised to deliver a historic call for gay rights Friday when it votes on a U.S.-backed resolution that demands equality for people regardless of sexual orientation.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for global action Wednesday to put an end to AIDS by 2020 and relegate the killer disease to the history books.

The Obama administration will introduce its first statement calling for the United Nations’ top human rights body to combat discrimination against gays and lesbians around the world.

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.

While GLBT blogs and news sites condemn the United Nations having recently scrubbed GLBT-inclusive language in a resolution mandating police action on "arbitrary and unjust executions," the mainstream media has had little to say.

The U.N. has amended a resolution by removing language that would have offered protections to GLBT people worldwide. GLBT equality advocates now worry that nations with anti-gay governments will see the deletion as carte blanche to step up persecution against sexual minorities.

The U.N. Economic and Social Council voted Monday to accredit the U.S.-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission after strong lobbying by the Obama administration.