Guantanamo hunger strikers double

The number of detainees taking part in a hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp has more than doubled in the past week, US authorities say. Some 84 prisoners are now refusing food, with 46 of them reported to have joined the protest on 25 December. The US military defines a hunger strike as missing nine consecutive meals. Human rights groups have challenged the US in the past over the number of detainees it says are refusing food and whether they have been force fed. About 500 prisoners remain at Guantanamo, many of them captured in Afghanistan. Some have been held for nearly four years without charge.

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