The United Nations said Wednesday that donations for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami were arriving faster than they could be recorded, pushing the amount pledged toward US$4 billion (¤3 billion). «We are recording pledges of between three and four billion dollars which shows that indeed the world is coming together in a manner we have never ever seen before,» U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said. He described the pledges made Wednesday by Germany of $674 million (¤510 million) and by Australia of $764 million (¤578 million) as «phenomenal» and thanked all the donors. «Be with us in the long term,» he urged. So large were the pledges, Egeland said, that his staff had to ask donors to repeat their offers to make sure they heard correctly the number of zeros. «Germany and Australia, if I can believe the breaking news will alone give more than a billion dollars. This is just incredible. It comes on top of the $2.5 billion we had confirmed as of yesterday. We are just not able to record all the generous offers, they are coming in so often and they are so big,» he said. --More 2337 Local Time 2037 GMT
