Record-breakers in the news today
Kate Winslet was this afternoon honoured by the Queen at Buckingham Palace, with the British actress collecting a CBE for services to drama.
The 37-year-old is best known for her role in Titanic, a film which holds the record for the most Oscars won by a film - a title shared with Ben Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Winslet's name is also attached on two occasions to the record for most Oscar nominations for the same character in one film.
Two movie characters both hold the record - the portrayal of Rose DeWitt Bukateer in Titanic led to nods for both Winslet and Gloria Stuart; while novelist Iris Murdoch, was played by nominees Dame Judi Dench and Winslet in the 2001 biopic Iris.
In sport, Roberto Di Matteo has paid a heavy price for Chelsea's 3-0 defeat to Juventus in the Champions League last night.
The 42-year-old Italian was sacked as manager this morning by the English Premier League football club, despite winning both the FA Cup and the Champions League during his brief eight-month stewardship.
Among the names being tipped to succeed Di Matteo at Stamford Bridge is former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, who will tonight set a new record for the youngest football manager to reach 100 UEFA Champions League matches when he leads out his Real Madrid team for tonight's group match against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Mourinho, 49, will beat the previous record-holder Carlo Ancelotti who was 51 when he reached the managerial milestone.
Meanwhile, in basketball, Grinnell College sophomore guard Jack Taylor has been grabbing headlines after smashing the US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) record, scoring an incredible 138 points in a Division III game against Faith Baptist Bible College.
Taylor sunk 52 two-pointers, and scored 27 points from three-point range, along with seven out of 10 free throws on his way to beating the previous collegiate record of 113 points set by Clarence 'Bevo' Francis for Rio Grande College of Ohio in 1954.
Should Taylor progress to professional level, he'll be looking to break Wilt Chamberlain's record for most points scored by an individual in an NBA game.
Chamberlain netted 100 points when he played for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks on 2 March 1962.
Elsewhere, the European Space Agency has announced an agreement with Russia for an unmanned mission to explore signs of life on Mars.
The mission should see an orbital probe sent to the Red Planet in 2016 that would look for traces of methane gas and other biological clues in Mars's atmosphere. A six-wheeled rover is set to follow in 2018.
The news comes almost a year after NASA launched its Mars Science Laboratory mission featuring the record-breaking Curiosity, which holds the title for Largest planetary rover.
The 3m long vehicle, which has a mass of 900 kg, landed in Gale crater, near the Martian equator in August this year.
It is designed to travel at up to 90 m per hour autonomously during its two-year exploration of the rich and diverse geology of the crater.
