The International Olympic Committee has been urged by a coalition of human and gay rights groups not to award future Games to nations which have discriminatory laws.

A mob armed with wooden clubs and iron bars, screaming that they were going to “cleanse” their neighbourhood of gay people, dragged 14 young men from their beds and assaulted them, human rights activists in Nigeria said today.

Cheers went up in the corridors of United Nations headquarters after a majority of countries voted to retain Aids conference credentials for the San Franscisco-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.