"Delegates to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women are racing to reach a consensus deal on a final document by Friday, and some diplomats say the future of the commission -- a global policy-making body created in 1946 for the advancement of women -- is at risk if they fail to broker a compromise," Reuters reports. "An 'unholy alliance' of Iran, Russia, the Vatican and others is threatening to derail [the] U.N. declaration urging an end to violence against women and girls by objecting to language on sexual, reproductive and gay rights, some U.N. diplomats said Wednesday," the news service writes, adding, "Russia, the Vatican, Iran and other conservative Muslim states including Egypt, object to references to access to emergency contraception, abortion and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, women's rights activists said" (Nichols, 3/13).