Many previous cease-fire agreements have failed, but the dynamics have changed since pro-government forces fully retook Aleppo.
Hundreds of families gathered in the rebel enclave of the Syrian city to be picked up. Later Thursday, the first wave had reached the government-held side.
Military service is compulsory for young men, even celebrities, who perform in military bands and at an annual promotional festival.
The Russian military is using life-size decoy tanks, jets and missile launchers for disguise and deception.
President Vladimir V. Putin, analysts say, is advancing goals in the Syrian conflict while President Obama is on the way out and his replacement is undetermined.
Moscow offered a 48-hour “pause” in fighting, far less than the minimum of seven days the Americans have demanded.
Pakistan played down the early morning operation, which it said killed two of its soldiers and wounded nine, but vowed a forceful response if it was repeated.
Many analysts say Russia and the Syrian government could be massacring civilians as part of a strategy with aims beyond just one city.
In 2013, the photographer Lynsey Addario accompanied Mr. Peres, then the president of Israel and one of the world’s oldest sitting leaders, for a day just before he turned 90.
The government on Monday ended a war with the FARC rebels, ending a conflict that killed as many as 220,000 people and displaced more than 5 million.
Taiwan made an unusual request to blur pictures of what appear to be new military installations on an island in the South China Sea claimed by four countries.