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From today's featured article
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![Australian troops of B Company, 30th Infantry Battalion, crossing a shallow creek between Weber Point and Malalamai](https://cdn.statically.io/img/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Sio_AWM070302.jpeg/120px-Sio_AWM070302.jpeg) Australian troops
The Battle of Sio, fought between December 1943 and March 1944, was the break-out and pursuit phase of General Douglas MacArthur's Huon Peninsula campaign, part of the New Guinea campaign of World War II. Following the defeat of the Japanese in the Battle of Sattelberg, Australian Army forces broke through positions around Finschhafen. Constant pressure from US Navy PT boats, Australian land forces and Allied aircraft brought the Japanese logistical system to the brink of collapse, resulting in disease, malnutrition and privation for the Japanese soldiers. Australian and Papuan troops advanced along the coast, employing infantry, tanks, and air strikes against the Japanese positions, which were generally sited at creek crossings in the jungle. The Australian and Papuan troops inflicted heavy and disproportionate casualties on the Japanese as they advanced, ultimately linking up with the American forces at Saidor. Australian troops were also able to capture important Japanese cryptographic materials. Hundreds of Japanese soldiers were killed; thousands more died from disease, malnutrition, exhaustion and suicide. (Full article...)
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Did you know...
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![National Museum of Vietnamese History](https://cdn.statically.io/img/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/National_Museum_of_Vietnamese_History_-_Hanoi.jpg/120px-National_Museum_of_Vietnamese_History_-_Hanoi.jpg) National Museum of Vietnamese History
- ... that the National Museum of Vietnamese History (pictured), redesigned by architect Ernest Hébrard, is a blend of French colonial and Vietnamese architecture, called Indochina architecture?
- ... that Piotr Domaradzki was active in the Polish Solidarity movement before being granted political asylum in the United States?
- ... that Henning Mankell preferred the African storytelling style used in his novel Chronicler of the Winds to European storytelling because of its ability to "jump between realities"?
- ... that Jackie Gleason called his orchestra leader Ray Bloch "the flower of the music world"?
- ... that the Eurasian bittern may visit reedbeds, rice fields, watercress beds, fish farms, gravel pits, sewage works, ditches, flooded areas and marshes?
- ... that Mexican singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade won three Latin Grammy Awards for her song "Hasta la Raíz"?
- ... that former Khmer Rouge official Sar Kheng is currently Minister of the Interior, Deputy Prime Minister, and a Member of the Cambodian Parliament?
- ... that the tower of Föra Church contains what may be one of Sweden's oldest toilets?
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In the news
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![Roch Marc Christian Kaboré](https://cdn.statically.io/img/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Roch_Marc_Christian_Kabor%C3%A9.jpg/100px-Roch_Marc_Christian_Kabor%C3%A9.jpg) Roch Marc Christian Kaboré
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On this day...
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Today's featured picture
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Two Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers stand with three vehicles, providing a size comparison of three generations of Mars rovers. Front and center is the flight spare for the first Mars rover, Sojourner, which landed on Mars in 1997 as part of the Mars Pathfinder Project. On the left is a Mars Exploration Rover test vehicle, a working sibling to Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in 2004. On the right is a test rover for the Mars Science Laboratory, which landed Curiosity on Mars in 2012.
Photograph: NASA
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