The CIA will dramatically reduce its presence in Iraq the agency disclosed Monday. Plans are in place to cut its numbers  to 40 percent of wartime levels, when the 700 agency personnel in the country made the Baghdad post the world’s largest CIA operations. The move coincides with the White House’s plan to scale back diplomatic and training missions in the country. Supporters of the CIA’s plan say that it is a sign of success, but detractors say that Iraq has scaled back counterterrorism cooperation with the U.S. “If you don’t have that cooperation, you are probably wasting the resources you are allocating there and not accomplishing much,” one former CIA analyst said.

A new poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center shows American voters are more divided than ever when it comes to political ideology. The poll, which began in 1987, marks an 18-point disparity in value-related issues between Republicans and Democrats, up from just 11 percent in 2003. The poll has jumped in recent years: in 2009 it was 16 percent before reaching its highest level this year. One pollster said that “the parties are more polarized than” ever before in the 25 years of the poll. The poll also showed that a growing number of Americans identify as independents (38 percent) compared to Democrats (32 percent) or Republicans (24 percent).

George Zimmerman’s lawyers aren’t done fighting for their client. Zimmerman, charged with second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, turned himself into the Seminole County jail in Sanford, Florida, yesterday after a judge revoked his bond on Friday, but his lawyers are filing a motion for his release again. A judge pulled his bond after it was revealed that Zimmerman told the court his finances were “limited," despite raising $135,000 for legal defense from anonymous donors through a website. His lawyers are arguing that his inaccurate statement was “caused by fear, mistrust, and confusion,” and that he has otherwise been “forthright and cooperative” in court.

A CIA drone strike in Pakistan targeted al Qaeda’s second in command, Abu Yahia al-Libi, on Monday, though it was not clear if he was actually killed. Al-Libi took over as al Qaeda’s second-in-command after Osama bin Laden was killed and he reportedly runs day-to-day operations in Pakistan. U.S. officials said that the drone strike killed five people and that they were “optimistic” that al-Libi was one of them. However, Pakistani officials claim more than a dozen people were killed. Pakistan has called for an end to the CIA’s drone program, but one expert said that al-Libi’s killing would be “another reason not to accept Pakistan’s demand for an end to drone wars.”

Get out your solar eclipse glasses and prepare for a once-in-a-lifetime sighting of Venus. On Tuesday afternoon, the rare transit of Venus—an event that occurs when the planet’s orbit is directly in between the Earth and the sun—will be seen from the U.S. for the last time until 2117. Venus will appear as a tiny black dot floating across the sun’s surface for several hours in the afternoon. Experts warn that special eyewear like solar eclipse glasses are necessary for safe viewing—so hurry to your local planetarium.

Former President Bill Clinton set the record straight on Monday night. After the Democrat praised Mitt Romney’s business record last week, calling it “sterling,” Clinton said at an Obama fundraiser in New York that a Romney presidency “would be in my opinion calamitous for our country and the world.” Clinton continued, saying that Obama has the “right economic policy and the right political approach and I think that [the Republicans’] economics are wrong-headed and their politics are worse.”

German press is reporting that Luka Rocco Magnotta, wanted for a horrific murder in which the victim was dismembered, has been arrested. The 29-year-old Canadian was thought to have fled to France, but was reportedly apprehended in Berlin. He was on the run for about two weeks after becoming a suspect in the Montreal murder of Chinese student Jun Lin.

Just don’t get caught toking up on the street corner. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has backed a proposal by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reduce the number of arrests for marijuana possession, which have increased under the Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy. Implemented to crack down on more serious crimes, the policy has been criticized for resulting in unfair charges and racial profiling. Cuomo plans to urge lawmakers to adapt state law so that those caught with pot in their pockets will only be fined $100 rather than be charged with a misdemeanor. Bloomberg says the proposal “strikes a fair balance” because police can still arrest people caught in the act.

An unmanned U.S. Air Force Boeing X37-B took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida a year ago and is landing in California in late June, but what’s it been doing up there this whole time? The mission of the Boeing space plane— a jet resembling a mini space shuttle and the second of its kind to fly in space—has never been explained, though there are rumors that its mission was to spy on China’s new space station, Tiangong. The jet was supposed to land in California last December, but its flight was extended for unknown reasons.

Embroiled in a real-life legal drama, Hollywood actors Kevin Costner and Stephen Baldwin appeared in court on Monday as the jury selection began for Baldwin’s lawsuit against Costner over investments in technology used to try to clean up BP’s 2010 oil spill. Baldwin, 46, filed suit against Costner, 57, in December 2010, claiming the Waterworld actor cheated him and a friend out of their shares in the $18 million deal for BP to buy oil-separating devices following the spill. Baldwin, who is seeking more than $21 million in damages, claims he and his pal didn’t know about the deal when they agreed to sell their shares for $1.4 million and $500,000 respectively. Costner, who says he didn’t know they were negotiating to sell their shares, is also seeking damages in counterclaims.  

Spike Lee is in Mike Tyson’s corner, but he can’t cut him. The acclaimed Do the Right Thing director will take charge of the tattooed heavyweight’s one-man show, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, when it comes to Broadway later this year, according to TMZ. Citing sources close to the boxer, TMZ reports that Kid Dynamite’s self-told tale of sex, drugs, and generally what it’s like to be the baddest man on the planet will also get a Broadway boost from producer Jimmy Nederlander, who’s reportedly signed on for the project. The profane pugilist took his first steps from brawling to Broadway via the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where his show made its premiere earlier this year.

Note: An earlier version of this cheat described said the producer was Eric Nederlander, not Jimmy.

Brunswick High School in Ohio is in mourning Monday after a car full of students crashed Sunday, killing three of them immediately. One of the students was hours away from his graduation. The 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier carrying five teenagers went out of control after the 18-year-old driver drove over train tracks at a high speed, causing the car to become airborne. The car went into a ditch and flipped, killing the driver and two passengers. The others were hospitalized. A fourth passenger died Monday from his injuries. “We want to allow the families to grieve in peace and do whatever we can to get through this very tragic situation," said schools superintendent Michael Mayell.

Their plan may have backfired. A plan heavily favored by Republican leaders to cut 8 percent of the Pentagon’s budget effective Jan. 2 now has them scrambling to undo their own handiwork. The effects on the military as a result of the 10-year, $600 billion round of cuts remain unclear, but Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other legislators have said that the belt-tightening measures, which would rein the defense budget back down to its 2007 level, would force the armed services to make choices that would affect local communities. “The soft underbelly that I’m trying to exploit is, what does this mean to your state?” Graham told reporters.

As international outrage intensifies over violence in Syria, EU officials prepare to turn up the heat on Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday as leaders gather at a summit in St. Petersburg. “The Russian side has certainly not been very helpful in finding solutions in terms of a political way out,” one EU official told Reuters regarding the stance Putin’s country has taken toward its ally. Russia and China have resisted efforts by the United States and United Nations to condemn President Bashar al-Assad and armed forces in support of his regime that have carried out violent action since a popular uprising began in the country 14 months ago.

A drone strike in Pakistan killed 15 people Monday. The third strike in three days brought the death toll during that period to 27. The strike in the tribal border region of Waziristan came as the United States and Islamabad butt heads over supply routes the country shares with Afghanistan. Attacks by the unmanned aircraft have drawn widespread anger from the Pakistani public, and the government in Islamabad has said that collateral damage has led to an increase in anti-American feeling in the country. The U.S. maintains that the strikes are effective and target only militants.

In some ways, Mitt Romney oversees his campaign like the former chief executive he is. Absent a Rovean mastermind, the Romney campaign relies on a core group of people who work closely with the Republican candidate, people close to the campaign have said, drawing on the former Massachusetts governor’s own idea on how to travel the road they hope will take them to the White House. “You have a group of people there that are mature, collaborative, very little personality conflict and turf fighting and the like,” former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, a Romney surrogate, told reporters. Recently, Romney seems to have been advising himself to forge more direct attacks on his Democratic opponent, staging counterrallies at some Obama campaign events.

Hard times bring people together. That idea may be put to the test in Europe, as leaders in euro countries contemplate a transnational finance ministry—once thought a pipe dream—as stocks slipped for the fourth day in a row Monday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is leading her country in support of a powerful new European finance ministry that would have direct influence over national budgets. The German leader has become more aggressive after her plans for a “fiscal compact” faltered. “The fundamental question is relatively simple,” one German government official told Reuters. “Do our partners really want more Europe, or do they just want more German money?”

Four men were found guilty of plotting a terrorist attack after a Danish paper published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005. Each faces up to 16 years in prison. The men were apprehended by police just hours before their planned attack, according to law-enforcement officials, and were found in possession of a machine gun, a pistol, and a stock of ammunition. They planned their attack at a public sporting event out of anger that the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten had published 12 cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet, a decision that drew outrage from Muslims at the time.

All was quiet in Tiananmen Square as the 23rd anniversary of the protests and subsequent crackdown approached. “The current stability-maintaining force, including the police, has effectively stopped people from doing anything on the anniversary,” Ding Xueliang, a Hong Kong university professor, told reporters. “The cost of organizing any collective action is too large; the pressure and risks on individuals too great.” The government has forbidden events to commemorate the 1989 demonstrations. Meanwhile, the United States, fresh from a scrape with the Chinese government regarding blind human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng, urged the country to provide “a full public accounting of those killed, detained, or missing” from the protests more than two decades ago.

Iraq’s Shiite religious-affairs office was the target of a brutal car-bomb attack Monday that claimed 18 lives and left dozens wounded. The explosion in the city’s capital came at about 11 a.m. local time and damaged surrounding buildings. “The scene was horrific,” one witness told The Associated Press after the vehicle wired with explosives went off, causing the first floor of the religious-affairs office to collapse, shattering glass, and damaging nearby cars. The building housed offices that oversee the management of religious sites such as mosques and other locations for the country’s Shiite Muslim population.

Mitt Romney is becoming a lot more popular lately—but he’s still not as well liked as President Obama. A new CNN/ORC International poll finds that Romney has gone from 34 percent favorability in February to 48 percent. Forty-two percent have a negative impression of the Republican presidential contender—the same percentage that dislike Obama. The president, however, is considered favorable by 56 percent of polled voters. “The biggest gap between Obama and Romney’s favorability ratings is among younger Americans,” observered CNN’s polling director. “Romney may have a small advantage among independent voters, but that is offset by his lower favorability rating among Republicans than Obama has among Democrats.”

I can haz propellers? Dutch artist Bart Jansen stuffed his cat Orville and affixed propellers to his paws after the kitty—named after Orville Wright—was hit by a car. Perhaps we should just be happy Jansen allowed all nine of Pussum’s lives to expire before he made the cat airworthy. “After a period of mourning, he received his propellers posthumously,” Jansen told reporters. Now a remote-controlled terror to all mouse-kind, a YouTube video shows the Orvillecopter hovering about head height off the ground. Jansen unveiled his macabre creation at the Kunstrai Art Festival in Amsterdam.

Youngsters under the age of 13 no longer content playing video games and chatting on AOL may soon be able to network on Facebook like the rest of us. The social-networking company is reportedly testing technology that would allow young kids to access the site under parental supervision, either by connecting children’s accounts to their parents’ or by giving parents controls that would monitor who their children “friend” and what applications they use. While Facebook bans kids under 13 from the site, a recent study found that roughly 7.5 million profiles on Facebook belong to users who are underage.

Buckingham Palace said that Prince Philip, the queen’s husband, went to the hospital with a bladder infection on Monday, according to the Associated Press. The queen and her family took in a 1,000-vessel flotilla Sunday on the Thames in honor of the 60 years of her reign, and more festivities are planned for Monday. The prince was reportedly taken to King Edward VII Hospital as a “precautionary measure,” according to the BBC. The Duke of Edinburgh, who turns 91 on Sunday, had a health scare last December that began with chest pains before the Christmas holiday and ultimately landed him in the hospital for heart surgery.

A plane crash that claimed the lives of all 153 passengers Sunday outside a Nigerian airport may have caused deaths on the ground as well, rescue workers said Monday. “The fear is that since it happened in a residential area, there may have been many people killed,” said National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib. While the cause of the crash is not yet clear, emergency workers continued to comb through the debris Monday in the neighborhood where the plane went down and are reported to have recovered 48 bodies. The plane slammed into an area packed with businesses and residential buildings near Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Sunday afternoon.

Armed men surrounded the international airport in the Libyan capital city of Tripoli on Monday morning, forcing flights to land at a nearby military base, according to officials in the country. “The situation in the airport is very tense, and tanks are surrounding the buildings,” an official told Reuters. “No one is allowed into the building.” Members of the al-Awfea Brigade indicated that they had targeted the airport to force the release of a militant leader who they claim was rounded up in recent days.

Google has a new strategy to crack the $20 billion local business advertising market. The company plans to launch a new small-business service as early as next month. The new plan, which was once being called Business Builder, will provide a number of services aimed at small businesses under one banner. The service will also use Google+ to allow users to interact with local businesses that will now have special web pages on the site. A Google spokesperson said, "In local, our vision is not a one-size-fits-all product, but a range of flexible solutions that make the web work for all local businesses."

Jerry Sandusky’s alleged victims will have to use their own names in court, Judge John Cleland ruled in Pennsylvania on Monday. The judge also said that no form of communication—including tweets or other electronic media—will be allowed from the courtroom. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday for the case, in which the former Penn State assistant football coach stands accused of having sexually abused 10 boys. Sandusky faces 52 charges spread out over 15 years. The former coach, who has been confined to his home pending trial, has denied the charges. Two hundred fifty reporters have registered to attend Sandusky’s trial, according to The Associated Press.

Barack on Broadway! President Obama takes to New York City for three star-studded fundraisers on Monday night. The theme for the evening is “Barack on Broadway” and the president will be joined in his fundraising efforts by notables like Bill Clinton, James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury, and Stockard Channing. Both Obama and Clinton are set to speak at a $40,000 per person event at the home of hedge fund manager Marc Lasry, who has already raised $200,000 for the president’s reelection bid. A gala fundraiser will be held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and a concert later in the evening will take place at the New Amsterdam Theater.

The Syria peace plan backed by United Nations envoy Kofi Annan may have fully unraveled. With the activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting that 80 Syrian soldiers were killed by rebels over the weekend, anti-regime forces said Monday that they are no longer tied by the Annan plan, which they said has failed to stem bloodshed in the embattled nation. “We have decided to end our commitment to this [plan], and starting from that date [Friday] we began defending our people,” rebel spokesman Maj. Sami al-Kurdi told Reuters. A council of rebel military leaders had given President Bashar al-Assad until last Friday to put an end to violence in the country.

Despite the absence of an ill Prince Philip, the queen and thousands of others gathered at Buckingham Palace for a star-studded concert in honor of the Diamond Jubilee. Grace Jones, Elton John, Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, and Kylie Minogue were just part of the musical line-up in the queen’s honor as a bevy of royal supporters rocked out in front of the palace. Prince Charles addressed the crowd on stage, flanked by the royal family, including the queen. Paul McCartney closed out the concert after earlier saying that he hoped Philip was OK, a rousing round of fireworks exploding in the sky following his performance.