Gnome-terminal fails to set echok mode in its stty settings (check with 'stty -a'). In a shell or other environment that doesn't do its own command-line editing, this means that typing some control characters looks (but does not act like) they had no effect, such as your line-kill character. Environment: gnome-terminal being started from inside an xterm (with echok set).
Upstream maintainer (Michael Zucchi (zucchi.com.au)) claims that this setting is a matter of opinion and he doesn't think it should be set.