VICE News The Iraqi military recaptured the al-Nuri Mosque, but they had to clear the area house by house first.

The New Yorker Once again, the Great Mosque of al-Nuri reflects the fate of the world’s most notorious terrorist group; this time, its demise.

Washington Post World The leaning minaret of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri stood over Mosul for 800 years. But on Wednesday, one of the most iconic religious sites in Iraq came crashing down as the army fought to take the city back from Islamic State militants. What happen Read more ... ed to al-Nuri mosque? http://wapo.st/2sZ1OA6

Reuters Iraqi forces battling Islamic State in Mosul advanced into the Old City and around the al Nuri mosque on Friday trying to seal off a main road to prevent militants sending in suicide bombers.

Techmeme Kantar: iPhone market share up 7 percentage points to 40.5% in US, likely due to Samsung Galaxy Note7 troubles (Vlad Savov / The Verge) http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/7/13866646/kantar-worldpanel-iphone-7-galaxy-note-7-sales

CBS News Israel's defense minister has said that Russia and Israel have worked out an open communication system "to prevent misunderstandings" inside Syria. That raises the question of whether the Russians would have been informed by Israel about the alleged Read more ... operation to assassinate Samir Kantar.

NBC News Samir Kantar was convicted of executing one of the most notorious attacks in Israeli history and spent nearly three decades in an Israeli prison.

Techmeme "Among new iOS customers for the first quarter, 11.4% switched from Android, compared to 14.6% who made the switch during the same period in 2014. Among new Android customers, only 5.9% came from iOS, compared to 9.8% in Q1 2014." Kantar: phablets m Read more ... ade up 21% of US smartphone sales in Q1, up from 6% a year ago, driven by iPhone 6 Plus sales (Carolina Milanesi / Kantar Worldpanel) http://bit.ly/1KjXycU http://techme.me/JWFc

TechCrunch Consolidation in the world of market analysis

Techmeme "According to Google Finance, there are currently 34.20 million shares of comScore. Working out the math, WPP is paying around $243 million for a stake in comScore."