Seath Jackson, 15, was brutally beaten, shot several times and burned to ashes in a backyard fire pit. Detectives say he was lured by his ex-girlfriend to a house where she, her brother and friends were waiting.

At the beginning of March, 15-year-old Seath Jackson adored Amber Wright.

He posted on Facebook that he loved Wright, also 15, and noted on one peaceful afternoon that he was spending time with her and her brother, 16-year-old Kyle Hooper. Weeks later, the young couple had broken up.

Now Wright is accused of luring Jackson to his death with text messages.

Marion County Sheriff's Office detectives say Wright, Hooper and three older friends planned a deadly encounter during which Jackson was beaten and shot several times, then burned to ashes. They have been charged with first-degree murder.

As U.S. auto assembly lines grind to a halt for want of components that usually come from now-disabled factories in northeastern Japan, business strategists may be forced to rethink the way globalized companies do business.

The effects of Japan's March earthquake and tsunami are being felt far beyond the shattered region around Sendai and Fukushima. As U.S. auto assembly lines grind to a halt for want of components that usually come from now-disabled factories in northeastern Japan, business strategists may be forced to rethink the way globalized companies do business. The result could well be a retreat from current manufacturing methods -- sourcing key components from a single supplier and running "lean" factories without stocks of supplies on hand -- whose main goal is to minimize costs. Now, management may also pay close attention to risks.

Such a change would represent a reversal of course for major international companies, potentially transforming the way that many of the world's industrial giants have functioned for the past two decades. Whereas companies used to run separate operations in many countries, each serving a given national market, in the 1980s multinational corporations started to run their affairs with diminishing attention to national borders. Today, a single plant or research center will often take worldwide responsibility for a particular product or business area. And whereas factories once manufactured their own components or purchased them nearby, now even some small plants have supply lines that stretch across the globe. Almost every manufacturer, from your local maker of wedding dresses to Boeing and Caterpillar, is a global company, because its production relies critically on parts or other inputs made or designed outside its home country.

The globalization of manufacturing is responsible for much of the boom in international trade over the past two decades. Around half of the maritime shipping containers that arrive in the Los Angeles and New Jersey ports, for example, contain not products for retail sale but "intermediate goods," products partially manufactured in one location and destined for further processing somewhere else. Similarly, a large proportion of airfreight consists of high-value components, such as semiconductors and optical lasers, rather than finished consumer goods.

BP is suing Transocean, the owner of the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last year, for $40bn (£24.37bn) in damages.

BP said safety systems on Transocean's Deepwater Horizon rig had failed.

Separately, BP also sued the maker of the rig's blowout preventer, alleging the device failed to stop the huge oil spill that followed the explosion.

Two award-winning photographers have been killed while covering the conflict in the Libyan city of Misrata.

Briton Tim Hetherington, 40, is said to have been killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack.

US photographer Chris Hondros, 41, was also killed, and two others, including Briton Guy Martin, were injured.

Mr Hetherington co-directed the Oscar-nominated war documentary Restrepo. Mr Hondros won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for war photography.

Do you like a good UFO detective story? Well, here's one for you. And it's ongoing, so we don't yet know the ending. It involves President John F. Kennedy's interest in UFOs shortly before his death and an allegation that he may have angered officials in his administration when he asked for information on the subject.

Recently, the FBI opened a new website, "The Vault," that lets you view a variety of documents, including those regarding UFOs. I looked into one document that appears to include a phony UFO story and mentioned how important it is to be extremely careful when looking at UFO documents and how it's critical to know the background of this information.

"As you must know, Lancer has made some inquiries regarding our activities, which we cannot allow. Please submit your views no later than October. Your action to this matter is critical to the continuance of the group."

In a contentious interview with MSNBC's Martin Bashir Wednesday, Andrew Breitbart accused the network of being controlled by George Soros, John Podesta, Bill Ayers and Media Matters' Eric Boehlert.

Breitbart also admitted during the interview that he had not watched the entire Shirley Sherrod tape before posting it to his website.

Watch this video from MSNBC's Martin Bashir, broadcast April 20, 2011.

Washington - US authorities on Wednesday filed charges against two companies on charges they exploited hundreds of Indian and Thai workers who earned a pittance and were forced to stay in decrepit conditions.

In what it called its largest ever human trafficking case in the farm sector, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that contractor Global Horizons brought in some 200 Thai men on promises of high-paying jobs.

The Thai men were sent between 2003 and 2007 to farms in Hawaii and Washington state where they were crammed into rooms infested with rats and insects and faced verbal and physical assaults, the federal agency said.

Constituents in Wisconsin are letting Rep. Paul Ryan (R) know that they aren't happy with his plan to extend tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

An audience at a town hall in Milton, Wisconsin booed the congressman when he tried to defend his proposal.

"The middle class is disappearing right now," one constituent at the town hall explained. "During this time of prosperity, the top one percent was taking about ten percent of the total annual income, but yet today we are fighting to not let the tax breaks for the wealthy expire?"

Certified assistance dogs will still be permitted under new policy

Home Depot is barring domestic animals from its Canadian outlets, following an incident last week in Ottawa when a shop greeter had the tip of her nose bitten off by a customer's dog.

Home Depot Canada issued a statement on Thursday explaining that the new no-pets policy was "the best decision for the shopping enjoyment and safety of all customers."

U.S. Home Depot locations will not be affected by the change.

Only certified assistance dogs, such as those needed to guide the visually impaired, will still be permitted inside.

Sydney - Asylum seekers torched a number of buildings at a Sydney detention centre in a night of wild riots, with police still trying to talk down a handful of protesters from the rooftops on Thursday.

The riots kicked off late Wednesday at the Villawood Detention Centre with an estimated 100 detainees involved at the height of the drama.

At one stage firefighters were pelted with roof tiles and pieces of furniture, ABC radio reported.