Balkan Video

LIKE a script written in Hollywood, the story of Billy Ray Harris contains love, loss and redemption and several elements that seem too good to be true. At the beginning of this month Mr Harris was homeless, spending his nights beneath a bridge and his days in a square in Kansas City, asking passers-by for change. Then a young woman accidentally dropped a diamond engagement ring into his coffee cup. Mr Harris returned the ring to its distraught owner when she came back the following day, and shortly thereafter became the beneficiary of a campaign that has raised more than $A141,000 from donors all over the world. Online fundraising, which now bankrolls films and helped to put President Obama in the White House, has given Mr Harris enough money to buy a three-bedroom house in Kansas City. The gifts kept coming yesterday, from donors in Asia, Europe and America. "Hoping that your future is brighter that your past, and that your best memories in life are yet to come," wrote a donor called Gerry from Britain, who gave $20, one of several thousand donations.