U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday that Al Qaeda No. 2 Abu Yahya al-Libi was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan on Monday. According to the anonymous officials, Libi was crucial to the group’s planning operations and will be difficult to replace. The strike killed a total of 15 people, whom the U.S. government claimed were suspected militants. Pakistan has not confirmed the killing, but the strike sparked anger and a complaint to U.S. diplomats about ongoing drone strikes.

As numbers continue to be tallied, Gov. Scott Walker has been declared the projected winner in the Wisconsin recall election Tuesday night, beating out Democratic challenger Tom Barrett, whom he had defeated in the 2010 race. Precincts had reported just around 30 percent of polls when NBC News first projected the race to go in favor of the sitting governor, with other networks quickly following. Walker is seen as surviving a union-backed recall race. Mitt Romney phoned Walker on Tuesday night, also issuing a statement congratulating the governor on his win.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected an appeal to revisit the case that struck down California’s Proposition 8, a controversial law that banned gay marriage in the state. The denial clears the way for the case to be appealed to the Supreme Court, where gay marriage opponents hope the conservative-leaning bench would rule in their favor. The First Circuit appeals court in Boston last week ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional because it denied marriage rights to same-sex couples in a state where gay marriage is legal. So far, courts have declined to rule broadly on whether marriage is a fundamental right for gay couples.

Here’s a shocker: Mitt Romney won five GOP primaries Tuesday night. No, it actually wasn’t a big surprise that the former Massachusetts governor ran away with contests in New Mexico, New Jersey, Montana, California, and South Dakota to bring his delegate total to 1,398–far above the 1,144 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination. Only one Republican primary is left and will take place in Utah on June 26. In a New Jersey GOP primary for a state representative slot, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, well known for being a sex therapist, former adviser to Michael Jackson, and reality-TV guru, has won a shot at the general election come November.

Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak only received a life sentence three days ago, but reports of the ex-dictator’s deteriorating health suggest he may not be in prison for much longer. An anonymous official at Cairo’s Torah prison told The Associated Press that Mubarak had collapsed several times since being placed behind bars and has been given a ventilator to help him breathe. Authorities denied Mubarak’s requests to have personal doctors oversee him in jail, though they consented to transfer his son Gamal, also in prison, to a cell nearby.

Jerry Sandusky wrote “creepy” love letters to his victims, and such notes—reportedly written to Victim 4—will be read in court after the trial starts Monday. Sources say the letters were written in Sandusky’s handwriting and that one of them was written in the third person. One of the victim’s attorneys said, “They have evidence to support his allegations, and there’s other evidence that has not been released to the public yet that I think will really resonate with the jury.” Victim 4, who is expected to be the first to testify, will also show the gifts that Sandusky allegedly gave him during their relationship.

In a prerecorded message broadcast Tuesday afternoon, Queen Elizabeth II said the Diamond Jubilee had truly been a “humbling experience.” “I hope the memories of this year’s happy events will brighten our lives for many years to come,” the queen said. From the balcony of Buckingham Palace, the queen waved to the crowd of thousands as the gun salute made a “feu de joie,” or a celebratory cascade of gunfire. She was joined by the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Missing was Prince Philip, hospitalized on Monday for a bladder infection, but their youngest child, Edward, said his father is feeling “a lot better” though royal watchers continue to speculate that his health is deteriorating.

A hacker claimed to have gained access to Mitt Romney’s personal email account on Tuesday, allegedly by answering the security question “What is your favorite pet?” The anonymous hacker told Gawker about the feat and claimed to have changed the password, but did not provide screen shots to prove it. The hacker also did not say whether or not the answer to the security question was Seamus, the dog whom Romney famously strapped to the roof of his car. A Romney campaign spokeswoman said that "proper authorities are investigating this crime," but she declined to say who was investigating or if Romney still uses the account in question.

Two schools in Vancouver, British Columbia, received packages Tuesday containing what authorities confirmed to be human remains. Police rushed to False Creek Elementary School in the early morning after school officials received a suspicious package. It was unclear why the staff thought the package was suspicious, but another was sent to nearby St. George’s School around the same time. Police and the coroner’s office have launched a full investigation into where the packages came from, searching for a link to the dismemberment murder in Montreal that has gained international notoriety.

Unless you think you’re living for another 105 years, this was your shot at spotting Venus. The tiny dot moving across the sun was just that—the planet Venus—on Tuesday, as millions reportedly went out to catch a glimpse at a phenomenon that won’t happen again until 2117. Venus made a rare passage between Earth and the sun beginning around 6 p.m. EST Tuesday evening, drawing thousands of observers to the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported. Watching parties were taking place around the world, and American viewers can a glimpse on the West Coast as late as 10 p.m. PST.

She’s already survived breast cancer, but now singer Sheryl Crow, 50, has revealed she has a brain tumor. The singer told a reporter that she had an MRI after worrying about her memory and doctors found that she had a very common form of brain tumor called a meningioma. “And I was, like, ‘See? I knew there was something wrong,’” Crow said. “I haven’t really talked about it … But it’s benign, so I don’t have to worry about it. But it gives me a fit.” Her representative elaborated on the singer’s comments, saying, “[Crow] has no symptoms and everything is fine … She is doing great and is healthy and happy.”

Canadian porn actor Luka Rocco Magnotta will appear on Tuesday in a German court on charges that he murdered and dismembered his lover—and then mailed the severed body parts throughout Canada. Magnotta was arrested on Monday in Berlin, apparently caught while reading about himself on the Internet. Magnotta is accused of killing Jun Lin, 33, a Chinese student Magnotta dated, and then allegedly mailing Lin’s body parts to the offices of political parties in Canada. Authorities say Magnotta filmed Lin’s murder—he allegedly stabbed him with an ice pick—and then posted the video online. Police say Magnotta flew from Montreal to Paris on May 26 and then traveled by coach from France to Germany.

Is justice color-blind? That question drove a Tampa Bay Times investigation of whether or not racial bias is present in the application of Florida’s Stand Your Ground defense, which came to national attention after the shooting of African-American teen Trayvon Martin earlier this year. A team of the paper’s researchers and reporters examined nearly 200 cases in the state and found that a defendant charged with killing a black person was let off 73 percent of the time, while a defendant charged with killing a white person was allowed to walk in 59 percent of the cases. Further analysis showed that the question of racial bias in the law’s application is not so simple—white defendants who invoked Stand Your Ground were charged and convicted at the same rate as black defendants.

The Little People Association of America is accusing the producers of the new movie Snow White and the Huntsman of passing over little people to play dwarfs in the film. The dwarfs in the movie are not played by little people, instead they are played by “normal-sized” actors, whose limbs were either digitally shrunk or whose faces were digitally transplanted onto little people’s bodies.

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.”

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 Chancellor Angela Merkel indicated on Monday that she will accept a grand bargain to give more support to some of the euro zone’s most troubled countries in exchange for more control over Europe’s spending. While worries grew over the debt crisis in Spain, Merkel said that it is up to Spain if they want financial aid. On Tuesday Spain warned that the moment where they can no longer borrow in the bond market is nearing. Financial ministers from the Group of 7 industrialized nations had an emergency meeting on Tuesday, while Europe’s shares inched up, in the hope that a deal to rescue the euro would be reached.

Panic is spreading throughout a remote part of northeast India after colonies of giant biting spiders have attacked villagers—and two have died. Authorities say it is unclear if the victims died from the spiders’ venom or from the treatment, which involved local witch doctors cutting the victims with razor blades to drain the wounds. A local magistrate said the victims were cremated before any autopsies could be done. Another seven bite victims have been given antibiotics after similar treatment to drain their wounds, doctors at a local hospital said. The hairy spiders were first noticed about a month ago in the Tinsukia district, an area with a population of about 100,000.

Thousands lined the streets of London on Tuesday for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, as she rode in a carriage to St. Paul's Cathedral, where the Archbishop of Canterbury led a Service of Thanksgiving to her. On Monday night, the Prince of Wales gave a heartfelt tribute to his mother during a star-studded concert which included performances by Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and Dame Shirley Bassey. The queen's husband, Prince Philip, was unable to attend after being admitted to the hospital Monday due to a bladder infection.

After five months of achieving celebrity status in a foreign country, Big Bird, Elmo, and the rest of the Sesame Street gang are leaving Pakistan on a sour note. The U.S. has ceased funding a $20 million project to make a Pakistani version of the popular children’s show after a Pakistani newspaper accused the local puppet theater, working in collaboration with the show’s developers, of corruption. The paper reported that the Rafi Peer Theater Workshop was using U.S. money for the show to pay off old debts, which the workshop has denied. The U.S. funded the show in an attempt to improve education in a country where a third of primary-school-age children aren’t in school.

Get ready for some smart gaming. At the E3 videogame conference on Monday, Microsoft unveiled its latest Wii U console, known as SmartGlass, which promises to connect Xbox to Windows through a tablet computer or a mobile phone. SmartGlass is designed to allow a tablet to act as a game controller and stream media to a big screen controlled by an Xbox, and Microsoft said the free application works with Windows phones, Windows 8, and other portable devices. Meanwhile at E3, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling said she is working with Sony to create an e-book called The Book of Spells, which will be released through the “Wonderbooks” platform on PlayStation 3.

It’s was almost a sad night in Paris for Novak Djokovic. The No.1-ranked tennis player in the world was nearly bounced out of the French Open, overcoming several match points, to beat Jo-Wilifried Tsonga in five sets. Djokovic has been bulldozing the competition in men’s tennis for the better part of the last year and is trying to complete the “Djokovic Slam”—holding all four major titles at the same time. No one has done that since 1969. Meanwhile, Roger Federer overcame a two-set deficit to beat Juan Martin del Potro.

Months after Scout Willis raised eyebrows with a series of provocative tweets, the daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis is getting more bad publicity. Willis, an aspiring singer and 20-year-old student at Brown University, was arrested for underage drinking and possession of a fake ID in New York City on Monday night, after cops caught her sipping a beer in Union Square. Willis received two misdemeanor charges and was released without bail early Tuesday morning and was ordered to return to a Manhattan court on July 31. Following the Twitter scandal, Willis’s publicist said the tweets about hating her parents and being hit on by photographer Terry Richardson were a “hoax” for a college project.

Political eyes will all be focused on Wisconsin Tuesday as voters go to the polls to decide whether to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Walker’s challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, said the race is a “dead heat,” as most polls showed Walker has a narrow lead over his 2010 challenger. State election officials said Tuesday that they had issued 206,000 absentee ballots, which could delay the results of the election as they are counted. Earlier surveys indicated a majority of voters have already made up their minds—and polls show that this could have the highest turnout for a gubernatorial election in 50 years.

Jury selection began on Tuesday for the trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who has been charged with child rape. Sandusky, 68, has been accused of molesting 10 boys, whom prosecutors allege Sandusky met through a charity he ran for underprivileged children, for more than 14 years. Judge John Cleland ruled on Monday that the victims’ identities may not be concealed during the trial, although they will be protected during the jury-selection process. Cleland ruled on Tuesday that the jurors will not be sequestered. The accusations against Sandusky caused Penn State to fire legendary coach Joe Paterno just months before he died of lung cancer, and two other officials have been charged with covering up Sandusky’s alleged crimes.

Mitt Romney might not be willing to denounce self-appointed surrogate Donald Trump, but is associating with him really wise? According to Public Policy Polling (a Democratic-leaning organization) 45 percent of registered voters are really turned off by the fact that Romney has been spending so much time with the Donald and are actually less likely to vote for him because of it. Forty-four percent, on the other hand, don't really care that the two business icons are friends and only 9 percent of voters are more likely to vote for Romney now that Trump is involved in his campaign.

As predicted, Senate Republicans blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act on Tuesday for the second time in two years. Pushed by Democrats and President Obama, the measure would have required companies to prove why women are making less than their male counterparts. Women currently make 77 cents for every a dollar men make, and the number is even lower for blacks and Hispanics. Republicans on Tuesday introduced their own version of the bill, which does not allow the federal government to collect salary information to monitor possible pay discrimination.

After feeling like maybe he had food poisoning, baseball legend Tommy Lasorda was taken to a hospital on Monday night and learned that he had suffered a mild heart attack. Lasorda, a Hall of Fame manager who was serving as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ representative at the player draft when he fell ill, is in stable condition after doctors inserted a stent into his blocked artery. Officials expect him to be released on Wednesday. Lasorda had a heart attack in 1996, which ended his 21-year career as a manager.

As polls have closed in Wisconsin, the race remains too close to call. Early exit poll numbers in the recall suggest Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett are neck and neck, while data showed that labor turnout was markedly high. Nearly a third of voters in preliminary polls said they come from union households—an increase from two years ago when only 26 percent of voters represented unions. The high-labor turnout is a bonus for Barrett, since Walker has called for union restrictions. Preliminary numbers also showed that President Obama has 51 percent of voter support compared with Mitt Romney’s 45 percent.