Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said a victory for his army in
Aleppo would be a "huge step" towards ending the country's five-year
civil war.
But he added that the defeat of rebel groups in the northern city would not end the conflict.
The
rebels called for a five-day truce to allow the evacuation of
civilians, after withdrawing from their last strongholds in Aleppo's Old
City.
But Mr Assad ruled out any ceasefires, as his army continues its offensive.
This is despite new calls for an immediate truce from the US and five Western powers.
In an interview with Syria's al-Watan newspaper, President Assad
said: "It's true that Aleppo will be a win for us, but let's be
realistic - it won't mean the end of the war in Syria.
"But it will be a huge step towards this end.
"Terrorists are present elsewhere. Even if we finish with Aleppo, we will continue our war against them."
Utter ruins in recaptured districts - the BBC's Lyse Doucet in Aleppo
Rebel-held
districts in east Aleppo are falling fast, faster than expected. The
full story from the battlefield is still emerging.
Areas we've been able to visit are a testament to intense fighting.
The
district of Al-Shaar, cleared on Tuesday to enable the army's assault
on the Old City, is now in utter ruin. The smoke of battle still hung in
the air a day later as did the residue of explosives.
There are also reports of deals to allow rebel fighters to retreat, including from the Old City.
But
the most battle hardened fighters, including forces known as the
al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front are vowing to fight on in what remains of
the opposition enclave.
The Syrian military, and its Russian and
Iranian allies, aren't listening to calls for a truce, or even for
humanitarian corridors.
Monday's mortar attack on Russia's field
hospital is said to have stiffened Moscow's resolve to finish the battle
for Aleppo as soon as possible.
Tens of thousands of civilians are still trapped in rebel-held districts of south-eastern Aleppo.
The
rebel groups said those residents were in great danger, adding that
they would support any initiative to ease their suffering.
One resident said those districts were now heavily crowded and there
were fears that people faced being captured, detained and tortured to
death.
"I know people who literally did nothing, they just kept
doing nothing for four, five years, they just wanted to stay in their
homes and now they are being arrested by the regime," Wissam, a teacher
and activist said.
Food supplies are exhausted and there are no functioning hospitals after months of heavy bombardment.
Government forces now control about 75% of eastern Aleppo, held by the rebels for the past four years.
The
rebels, who had been left with just a spit of land north-east of the
citadel after recent government advances, had abandoned it by Wednesday
morning, retreating to territory they still hold further south.
Plea for ceasefire
Meanwhile,
the US, Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Canada jointly called for
an immediate ceasefire "to allow the United Nations to get humanitarian
assistance to people in eastern Aleppo".
They also condemned the
Syrian government and its main backer Russia for "their obstruction of
humanitarian aid", accusing them of targeting hospitals and schools "in
an attempt to wear people down".
But fresh talks on Wednesday evening between US Secretary of State
John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ended without a
breakthrough on the issue.
Russia and China earlier vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on a week-long ceasefire.
French
President Francois Hollande responded by accusing Russia of "systematic
obstruction" which "bolsters the regime of Bashar al-Assad in its
destructive drive which is harming the defenceless civilian population".
Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov described all the remaining rebels in Aleppo as
"terrorists", saying they had united around the jihadist group formerly
known as the al-Nusra Front.
A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight with more than 40 peopleon board has crashed in the north of the country.
Flight PK-661 "lost contact with the control tower on its way from
Chitral to Islamabad a short while ago", the airline said in a
statement.
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told the BBC that the wreckage had not yet been found.
The national carrier has been accused of safety failures in the past.
In the last major crash in 2006, 44 people died.
The plane came down in the Hevalian area, about 70km (43 miles) north of Islamabad, local media are reporting.
The
plane took off from Chitral at around 10:00GMT (15:00 local time),
losing contact 90 minutes later, shortly before it was due to arrive at
its destination, media report.
A famous former pop singer turned
Islamic preacher, Junaid Jamshed, and his wife were on the flight's
passenger list, according to leading private news channel GEO TV.
The army says it has dispatched troops and helicopters to the location, AP reports.
The EU banned PIA flights from flying to Europe in 2007 over safety concerns.
US President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to cut government
costs by cancellingthe order for new planes to carry the American
president.
Mr Trump tweeted:
"Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future
presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel
order!"
The government has a contract with Boeing to build two or more new planes.
The White House appeared to cast doubt on the figures quoted by Mr Trump.
"Some
of the statistics that have been cited, shall we say, don't appear to
reflect the nature of the financial arrangement between Boeing and the
Department of Defence," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
The new planes would enter service around 2024.
Boeing shares fell more than 1% after the president-elect's tweet, but recovered most of their losses in afternoon trading.
Mr Trump would not fly on the new planes unless he won a second term in the 2020 election.
The president-elect also announced on Tuesday that Japan's SoftBank has agreed to invest $50bn (£39.4bn) in the US aimed at creating 50,000 new jobs.
Mr Trump revealed the plan after meeting with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son at Trump Tower.
"Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!" he tweeted.
In other developments:
In his last major speech on national
security, President Obama warned the US should not lose sight of it
founding values while fighting terrorism
Mr Trump sold his entire share portfolio in June, his spokesman says, in a move that could address conflict-of-interest concerns
A Republican elector in Texas vowed to withdraw his backing of Mr Trump when the electoral college meets next week
Vice-President Joe Biden, 74, suggested he would be open to running for president for a third time, in 2020
'Could cost more' - Zoe Thomas, BBC New York business correspondent
As president and commander-in-chief, Donald Trump will have the power to cancel the contract with Boeing for the new planes.
But
if he does, it could cost the US taxpayer even more as the new
president tries to save money. The US government has already signed a
contract with Boeing for $170m (£134m; €158m). Additional funding has
also been earmarked for the two new planes.
The Government
Accountability Office - an independent government auditor - estimates
the final cost will be $3.2bn. The planes are still in early design
phases, though - much of the money has yet to be spent and has not had a
chance to overrun the cost estimates.
Negotiation between Boeing
and the US government could cut some of the costs, but if Mr Trump pulls
out of the Boeing contract entirely the country may lose the money it
is already contracted to pay.
Mr
Trump now uses his own plane, but as president he would travel aboard
Air Force One, which is equipped with special safety, defensive and
communications equipment.
He is known for his admiration of his Trump-branded Boeing 757 jet, boasting to Rolling Stone last year that his aircraft was "bigger than Air Force One, which is a step down from this in every way".
"Did you know it was featured on the Discovery Channel as the world's most luxurious jetliner?" he said at the time.
The
president-elect told reporters on Tuesday at Trump Tower in New York
that Boeing was "doing a little bit of a number" and the cost was
"ridiculous".
"We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money," he added.
A flying Oval Office
Technically, "Air Force One" is a call
sign for any aircraft carrying the US president. However the term is
mostly used to refer to two customised Boeing 747-200B jets
Capable of in-flight refuelling, and
equipped with secure communication equipments, they have been described
as "flying Oval Offices"
Inside, the president and his travel companions enjoy 4,000 sq feet (400 sq m) of floor space on three levels
This includes a presidential suite as well as quarters for advisers, Secret Service officers, and the travelling press corps
A medical suite can function as an operating room, and a doctor is always on board
The plane's two food preparation galleys can feed 100 people at a time.
Mr Trump's remarks came after the Chicago Tribune published a column
early on Tuesday in which Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg
suggested the president-elect roll back his anti-trade rhetoric.
"If
we do not lead when it comes to writing these (trade) rules, our
competitors will write them for us," Mr Muilenburg told the newspaper.
The
Government Accountability Office estimates that the project's overall
cost will be $3.2bn, a figure that is expected to rise.
The US Air Force said it had budgeted $2.7bn for the project, "but expects this number to change".
Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher, in a statement,
said: "We are currently under contract for $170m to help determine the
capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique
requirements of the president of the United States.
"We look
forward to working with the US Air Force on subsequent phases of the
programme, allowing us to deliver the best planes for the president at
the best value for the American taxpayer."
South Korea's military cyber command, set up to guard against hacking,
appears to havebeen breached by North Korea, the military has said.
A spokesman told the BBC that classified information was thought to
have been stolen, although it is not clear exactly what data was
accessed.
The North has previously been accused of hacking into banks and media outlets but never the South's military.
Pyongyang has in the past rejected allegations of cyber crime involvement.
"It seems the intranet server of the cyber command has been
contaminated with malware. We found that some military documents,
including confidential information, have been hacked," a military
spokesman told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
It is not clear whether low-grade documents or more important details like war plans were accessed.
The military said that the compromised section of its network was isolated once the attack was detected.
North Korea is believed to have thousands of personnel involved in cyberwarfare.
Since
2010 they have been focusing on application programming interfaces
(APIs), which can be designed to attack national infrastructures, North
Korean defector and computer science professor Kim Heung-Kwang told the
BBC.
The North has a track record of alleged cyber attacks in
recent years against South Korean government agencies, banks and media
companies.
An apparent concerted campaign involving the planting
of malicious code began in 2014, Reuters news agency quoted police as
saying.
It was aimed at laying the groundwork for an attack on a massive scale, the agency said.
The
campaign was discovered in February this year after defence-related
material including blueprints for the wings of F-15 fighter jets was
stolen.
Some 140,000 computers at 160 companies were attacked up until this June, according to police.
