LOS ANGELES - ''The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' won a record-tying 11 Academy Awards on Sunday, including best picture and director and becoming the first fantasy to win the top Oscar. In the acting categories, all the winners took home their first Oscars: Charlize Theron won best actress for her transformative performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in ''Monster,'' and Sean Penn was named best actor for playing a vengeful ex-hoodlum who falls back on his criminal ways in ''Mystic River.

Charlize Theron, Sean Penn and "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" were the big winners at last night's Academy Awards. The 76th annual Academy Awards were presented by Billy Crystal, who has hosted the program for eight years. "(Crystal) did an OK job," said Vincent Prendergast, a senior marketing major and a member of the Memorial Student Center Film Society.

Audience members who attended the NASA Mars Rover Discoveries presentation given by Mark Lemmon Saturday afternoon may have been sitting in their seats in Rudder Auditorium with 3D glasses on, but felt as if they were actually looking around on the Mars' surface.

Julio Jana, a senior agricultural economics major from Brazil, said by age 17 that most high school graduates in Brazil know what they want to do with the rest of their lives. "They usually go to law school or medical school," he said. "There isn't really any undergraduate study.

Although met with controversy in its first two years, this year's running of "The Vagina Monologues" went smoothly, without taking out any of the shock value, Texas A&M officials said. On Feb. 26-28, a cast of 24 A&M students performed Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" at Rudder Theater.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - A tanker carrying 3.5 million gallons of industrial ethanol exploded and sank about 50 miles off the Virginia coast Saturday, the Coast Guard said. At least three of the 27 crew members died and 18 are still missing. The Bow Mariner, a 570-foot tanker flying a Singapore flag, made an emergency call just after 6 p.

TAYLORSVILLE, Miss. - A relative of a family of three who disappeared on Valentine's Day was charged Sunday with a drug and firearms violation, and authorities said other charges were expected. Authorities have not said whether they believe Michael and Rebecca Hargon and their 4-year-old son, James Patrick, are still alive.