1.Just when you were starting to think that maybe this world is a terrible place, here comes news to warm the heart.
A little boy in Salt Lake City has been overwhelmed by the delivery of hundreds of books from people all over the world, including from Australia, after he told the mailman that he didn’t have enough books to read.
The Huffingpost Post says the boy, Mathew Flores, approached his postman one day, asking for any old junk mail.
The postman, Ron Lynch, asked why, and Matthew said he had no books, and his parents didn’t have a car to take him to the library.
“You should have seen him beam when I said I could help,” the postman said, on his Facebook page, “He’s counting on me, so I’m counting on you.”
The postman thought his post might bring 50 or so books, but his request went viral and he’s been able to deliver hundreds and hundreds of books to Matthew, who has not only promised to read them all, he’s started lending them to friends.
2.Two gay parents have been prevented from leaving Thailand with their daughter, who was born to a surrogate mother.
Yahoo News reports that the surrogate refused to sign the necessary paperwork, and they say it’s because she discovered that the Dads were gay.
Gordon Lake, who is the biological father of the child, and his husband, Manuel Santos, have vowed to stay in Thailand until allowed to leave with their little girl, called Carmen.
“If we leave, we risk the greatest loss of all — our beautiful baby daughter,” they wrote on a crowd-funding website.
The couple already have a two-year-old son.
The surrogate denies that she changed her mind after discovering that the fathers were gay, saying she doesn’t want the girl to fall into the world of human trafficking.
Thailand used to have a thriving trade in surrogate babies but that all changed when an Australian couple refused to take a son, Gammy, who was born with Down syndrome, home with them.
They did however leave Thailand with his twin sister, prompting outrage around the world.
3.A young child who died in a hot car in Arkansas earlier this week was the son of the local judge.
The AP reports that the boy died after being left in the car and experiencing “excessive heat.”
The boy’s father is Circuit Judge Wade Naramore. A statement released on the family’s behalf by a family friend Sunday night called the death a “tragic accident.”
At least one local prosecutor has asked to be excused from an investigation into the case on the grounds that the Judge is so well known in the small town of Hot Springs.
4.The law is catching up with men who try to blackmail women by posting their naked selfies.
A court in Britain has jailed a man for 12 years after he threatened to post intimate photographs of his ex-wife, after she left him.
The Guardian reports that James Casbolt, 37, from St Ives in Cornwall, demanded more than $4 million in exchange for not sharing intimate pictures of his ex-wife, Haley Meijer.
Haley is the daughter of American super market tycoon Hank Meijer.
James wrote: “If my terms are not met, I can tickle the public interest for years.”
He also threatened Haley, saying: “If you are living with another guy, you just gave him a death sentence.”
Judge Christopher Harvey-Clarke described James as an “extremely dangerous man’’.
“Your intentions were evil,” he said.
“You sought to intimidate and humiliate Haley Meijer. You were not mad, but you were bad and very dangerous to know. You present a significant risk to the public.”
The court was told Haley sent sexually explicit images to her husband when he was serving in the Army and told her he was lonely and missed her.
The judge said: “You asked your wife for sexually intimate images and videos. They were intended to give you pleasure and solace. She gave them to you because she loved you. You grossly abused her trust.”
