BAGHDAD

Military ignoring orders to close torture jail, officials say

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s military office is defying members of parliament and ignoring the government’s own directive by operating a secretive jail in Baghdad’s Green Zone where prisoners routinely face torture to extract confessions, Iraqi officials say.

Iraqi legislators and security officials have been joined by the International Committee of the Red Cross in expressing concern about the facility, called Camp Honor. In a confidential letter to the prime minister, the Red Cross requested immediate access to the jail and added that there could be three more connected to it where detainees also are being mistreated.

Iraq’s Justice Ministry ordered Camp Honor shut down in March after parliament’s human rights committee toured the center and said it uncovered evidence of torture. The Human Rights Ministry denied Wednesday that it was still in operation. But several Iraqi officials familiar with the site said that anywhere from 60 to 120 people have been held there since it was ordered closed.

MEXICO CITY

Marijuana plantation worth $160 million is discovered

Mexican soldiers found the largest marijuana plantation ever detected in Mexico, a huge field covering almost 300 acres, the Defense Department said Thursday.

The plantation is four times larger than the previous record discovery by authorities at a ranch in northern Chihuahua state in 1984.

The pot plants sheltered under black screen-cloth in a huge square on the floor of the Baja California desert, more than 150 miles south of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

Army Gen. Alfonso Duarte said the screening, which is often used by regular farmers to protect crops from too much sun or heat, made it difficult to detect from the air what was growing underneath.

It was only when soldiers on the ground reached the isolated area Tuesday that they found thousands of pot plants as high as 7 feet tall. Duarte said most were not yet ready for harvest.

He said traffickers could have harvested about 120 tons of marijuana from the plantation, worth about about $160 million.

JAKARTA, Indonesia

Thousands flee as volcano erupts; no casualties reported

An Indonesian volcano spit lava and smoke thousands of feet into the air early Friday, sending panicked residents fleeing down its slopes. There were no immediate reports of causalities.

The first eruption at Mount Lokon occurred at 10:46 p.m. said Brian Rulrone, a disaster management agency official. It was followed by a second powerful blast just after midnight and a third at 1:10 a.m.