VOA60 America - Russian court extends detention of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich

The United States and Iraq will begin talks soon to wind down the mission of a U.S.-led military coalition formed to fight the Islamic State group in Iraq, the U.S. and Iraqi governments said Thursday. U.S. forces in Iraq have been increasingly targeted by Iran-backed militias.

A Russian court extended the pre-trial detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, until March 30. Gershkovich and the Journal deny the allegations, and the U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained.

Human rights groups condemned the execution of convicted murderer Kenneth Smith on Thursday in the state of Alabama. The prisoner was asphyxiated with nitrogen gas in what was the first use of a new controversial method of capital punishment.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump briefly took the witness stand Thursday in the writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation case. Trump said that he is standing by his earlier testimony that Carroll's claim that he raped her in the 1990s was a hoax. Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million.

NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter has officially ended its mission after nearly three years, the space agency said Thursday. The aircraft, which hitched a ride to the Red Planet on the Perseverance rover, sustained damage to its rotor blades while landing during its last flight.