US vote supports keeping Guantanamo Bay open

The US Congress has voted in favour of keeping open the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The vote on Tuesday broke mostly along party lines and upheld current law that blocks the use of taxpayer funds to build or renovate facilities in the US to house suspected terrorists and other prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.

It was the first vote since President Barack Obama said last month that he was still determined to close the facility. Obama first made that promise more than four years ago but has been consistently rebuffed by Congress.

Obama and Democratic allies like Jim Moran of Virginia - who backed Obama's position on the House floor - say it's unfair to indefinitely detain prisoners without trial and that relatively few detainees are members of al-Qaeda.