May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — Alaska Air Group Inc on Tuesday promoted Brad Tilden to chief executive officer, replacing Bill Ayer, who is retiring after leading the company since 2002. ...  > full story

May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — Oil refiner CVR Energy Inc, which is being acquired by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, said it has scrapped plans for a public offering of shares in majority-owned fertilizer maker CVR Partners LP. ...  > full story

RAINANS/DALIAN, May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — An elusive French architect is emerging as a key figure in China's biggest political scandal in two decades, with evidence suggesting he shared both an affectionate and close business relationship with the Chinese woman at the heart of the scandal. ...  > full story

May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — Home Depot Inc reported weaker-than-expected quarterly sales as a warm winter prompted many homeowners to take up renovation projects earlier than usual this year. ...  > full story

LONDON, May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — Rebekah Brooks, a former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper arm, has been charged with perverting the course of justice over a phone hacking scandal at one of the media mogul's papers, British prosecutors said on Tuesday. ...  > full story

ADEN, Yemen, May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — At least 32 people, including 23 al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in Yemen, officials and residents said on Tuesday, as the government pressed ahead with a new U.S.-backed offensive against insurgents in the south of the country. ...  > full story

VIENNA, May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — Iran's talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog about Tehran's atomic programme are going well, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday, the second day of discussions. ...  > full story

BERLIN/PARIS, May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — Germany's economy confounded expectations by posting robust growth in the first quarter of the year while France could summon up none at all, data showed on Tuesday. ...  > full story

DUBAI, May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — Iran has hanged a man it said was an agent for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad whom it convicted of killing one of its nuclear scientists in 2010, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday. ...  > full story

WASHINGTON, May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — Jean Coyle, 67, has a new kind of ministry. ...  > full story