Asia UN Secretary General Kofi Annan made a "flash appeal" for nearly a billion dollars in immediate emergency aid for countries stricken by the Asian tsunami disaster, which he called the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the history of the world body. Asia Germany became the biggest European donor to the Asian tsunami disaster as Europe fell silent to remember the victims of the raging waters which could include thousands of its citizens. Asia The UN's health agency warned that 150,000 people in areas devastated by the deadly tsunamis were at "extreme risk" of a major disease outbreak unless they receive clean water supplies by the end of the week. Iraq Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said pressing ahead with elections later this month would help quell the violence plaguing the country as three suicide bombings killed 17 people, most of them policemen. US The US military has ordered an investigation into FBI allegations of prisoner abuses at the Guantanamo US naval base on Cuba, where war on terror suspects are being held. Mideast Palestinian militants defied appeals by presidential election favourite Mahmud Abbas to stop firing rockets into Israel as they hit an army base in a new strike launched from the Gaza Strip. Mideast Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said a new government set to implement his Gaza pullout plan would be in place by next week, as an ultra-orthodox party agreed to complete the coalition line-up. Chile Chile's ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet was officially put under house arrest at his ranch, after the Supreme Court upheld his indictment on murder and kidnapping charges stemming from abuses during his 1973-1990 rule. Nepal Nepalese troops killed at least 130 Maoist rebels in fierce jungle fighting in the remote southwest of the Himalayan kingdom, the army said.