PAKET UMROH BULAN FEBRUARI MARET APRIL MEI 2018

MAN CITY RAIH TIGA POIN

saco-indonesia.com, Manchester City telah sukses untuk meraih tiga poin penting atas Liverpool, saat menang 2-1 pada laga boxing day Premier League di Etihad Stadium, (27/12).

Tim besutan Brendan Rodgers sejatinya telah memimpin lebih dulu lewat gol Philippe Coutinho. Namun skuat Manuel Pellegrini telah berhasil bangkit sebelum babak pertama usai, lewat dua gol yang telah dicetak oleh Vincent Kompany dan Alvaro Negredo.

Sejak pertandingan dimulai, tuan rumah The Citizens tampil agresif dengan mengandalkan eksplosivitas Jesus Navas di sayap kanan penyerangan. Berkali-kali kecepatan winger asal Spanyol itu telah merepotkan lini belakang Liverpool.

Laga baru sudah berjalan lima menit, tiang gawang tim tamu yang dijaga oleh Simon Mignolet bergetar, setelah bola sundulan Navas hasil crossing Aleksandar Kolarov yang gagal digapai oleh Negredo, nyaris telah membuka keunggulan.

Pada menit ke-19, Raheem Sterling telah berhasil menerima through pass Luis Suarez, dan menjebol gawang Joe Hart. Sayang hakim garis telah menganggap Sterling sudah terjebak offside, kendati dalam tayang ulang posisinya juga masih ada di belakang Kolarov yang terlambat naik.

Tim tamu The Reds akhirnya telah berhasil untuk membuka skor, melalui gol apik Coutinho di menit ke-24. Usai memainkan bola pendek hingga Sterling menerima bola dari Suarez, gelandang Brasil itu telah menceploskan bola setelah lepas dari kawalan Pablo Zabaleta.

Sayangnya keunggulan itu juga tak bertahan lama, karena tujuh menit kemudian City telah sukses untuk menyamakan kedudukan menjadi 1-1. Berawal dari sepak pojok yang dieksekusi oleh David Silva, Kompany telah memenangkan duel udara dengan Martin Skrtel, dan sundulannya gagal dihadang Mignolet.

Keberhasilan untuk menyamakan kedudukan telah membuat motivasi City untuk kembali meningkat. Namun justru Liverpool yang telah kembali mendapat peluang untuk mencetak gol, lewat proses yang nyaris sama. Sayang kali ini sepakan Coutinho telah berhasil diblok dengan baik oleh Joe Hart.

City juga berusaha untuk membalas lewat tendangan jarak dekat Negredo, sebelum blok brilian yang dilakukan oleh Skrtel telah membuat arah bola menjauh dari gawang. Kendati begitu, tuan rumah akhirnya berbalik unggul jelang babak pertama usai.

Lewat situasi serangan balik, Navas lolos di sisi kanan dan telah menciptakan kepanikan di lini belakang, sebelum melepas through pass kepada Negredo. Dengan tendangan first time berkelas, striker Spanyol itu telah berhasil menaklukkan Mignolet, yang sempat men-tip bola namun tidak sempurna.

Gol di menit 45 tersebut telah mengakhiri paruh pertama pertandingan dengan skor 2-1 bagi tuan rumah City. Di awal babak kedua, Liverpool juga tampak berusaha mengejar gol untuk dapat menyamakan kedudukan. Sayang upaya dari Jordan Henderson dan Suarez masih tak menemui sasaran.

Menit 59 Negredo nyaris mencetak gol keduanya, namun kali ini Mignolet lebih sigap dalam mengamankan bola sepakannya. Hingga 10 menit kemudian, kedua tim lebih banyak memainkan bola di sektor tengah, sembari menunggu celah di pertahanan masing-masing tim.

Glen Johnson juga sempat mendapat peluang tembak, setelah Joleon Lescott gagal untuk melakukan clearance dengan sempurna. Sayang kontrol yang tidak sempurna telah membuat sepakannya lemah dan mampu diantisipasi Joe Hart, yang kali ini bermain cukup baik.

Pada menit ke-73 Sterling kembali telah memperoleh ruang terbuka untuk dapat mencetak gol, setelah Suarez mengirim crossing apik ke tengah kotak penalti. Namun sontekan Sterling justru melambung jauh di atas mistar.

Liverpool telah kembali berpeluang untuk dapat menyamakan angka, setelah mendapat tendangan bebas akibat pelanggaran Yaya Toure kepada Suarez. Bola mati yang telah dieksekusi sendiri oleh Suarez hanya melambung tipis di atas mistar.

Sejumlah kesalahan mendasar yang telah dilakukan oleh para pemain Liverpool di daerah pertahanan mereka membuat City berulang kali mendapat peluang menyerang. Beruntung gawang Mignolet tidak bobol untuk kali ketiga.

Hingga peluit panjang dibunyikan, skor 2-1 untuk kemenangan City tidak berubah. Tambahan tiga poin untuk membawa City naik ke posisi dua dengan poin 38 dari 18 pertandingan. Sedangkan Liverpool menurun ke posisi empat, dengan poin 36.

Starting line up kedua tim:
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov; Yaya Toure, Fernandinho; Navas, Silva (Garcia 87"), Nasri (Milner 72"); Negredo (Dzeko 77").

Liverpool (4-3-3): Mignolet; Johnson, Skrtel, Sakho, Cissokho; Henderson, Allen, Lucas (Aspas 82"); Sterling, Suarez, Coutinho (Moses 68").

Statistik Manchester City - Liverpool:
Shots: 20-12
Shots on goal: 6-5
Penguasaan bola: 52%-48%
Pelanggaran: 10-9
Corner: 7-6
Offside: 1-3
Kartu kuning: 1-3
Kartu merah: 0-0 (bola/atg)

Editor : Dian Sukmawati

GEDUNG CYBER DI MAMPANG KEBAKARAN

saco-indonesia.com, Kebakaran pagi ini telah melanda Gedung Cyber 1 Mampang Prapatan, Jakarta Selatan. Belum dapat diketahui bagian mana dari gedung yang telah dilalap si jago merah.

Deni, petugas piket Suku Dinas Pemadam Kebakaran Jakarta Selatan, juga mengatakan pihaknya telah mendapatkan laporan pada pukul 05.40 Wib.

"Kita kirim 10 unit damkar. Sekarang sudah pendinginan," kata Deni saat pukul 07.50 Wib.

Dia belum bisa memastikan penyebab kebakaran, karena petugas dari lapangan belum kembali. Begitu juga soal kemungkinan adanya korban, dia belum bisa memberi informasi.

Editor : Dian Sukmawati

MADRID KO LAGI..

saco-indonesia.com, Madrid - Lewat perpanjangan waktu 2x15 menit dan beberapa insiden antar pemain, Atletico Madrid keluar sebagai pemenang final Copa del Rey usai mengalahkan Real Madrid dengan skor 2-1.

Pada laga yang dihelat di Santiago Bernabeu, Sabtu (18/5/2013) dinihari WIB, Ronaldo membawa Madrid unggul lebih dulu sebelum disamakan Diego Costa. Dua gol itu tercipta di babak pertama.

Paruh kedua laga tak ada gol tercipta sehingga laga harus diteruskan ke 2x15 menit extra time. Miranda tampil sebagai pahlawan lewat gol yang dicetaknya di paruh pertama perpanjangan waktu.

Bagi Atletico ini adalah gelar ke-9 di kompetisi ini sementara itu Madrid harus gigit jari karena hampa gelar musim ini.

Jalannya Pertandingan

Di menit 14 Madrid unggul lebih dulu lewat Ronaldo. Diawali korner Luka Modric, bola mengarah ke kotak penalti dan disambut tandukan Ronaldo yang menjebol jala Thibaut Courtois.

Setelah gol itu Madrid justru lebih banyak ditekan oleh Atletico yang bernafsu mencari gol penyama kedudukan. Akhirnya Atletico mendapatkannya di menit 35 melalu Diego Costa.

Radamel Falcao mendapat bola di tengah lapangan dan lolos dari penjagaan Raul Albiol, lalu memberikan umpan terukur kepada Costa yang berlari dan kemudian melepaskan sepakan menyilang ke tiang jauh tanpa bisa dihalau Diego Lopez.

Di menit 43 Mesut Oezil nyaris mencetak gol andaikan bola hasil tembakan setengah voli-nya tak menghantam mistar gawang Atletico.

Skor 1-1 bertahan hingga turun minum.

Babak kedua berjalan Atletico tetap mengambil inisiatif serangan dan di menit 61 mereka mendapatkan peluang di kotak penalti. Gabi melepaskan crossing ke tiang jauh yang disambut sepakan kaki kiri Filipe Luis tapi masih menyamping di gawang Lopez.

Semenit setelahnya Madrid mendapatkan dua peluang. Pertama dari tembakan jarak dekat Benzema yang menerpa tiang gawang dan bola rebound yang didapat Oezil masih bisa dihalau Juanfran di garis gawang.

Kemudian sama halnya dengan free kick Ronaldo di menit 69 yang tertahan tiang kanan gawang Courtois. Michael Essien kemudian menyambar bola muntah tapi melayang jauh di atas mistar.

Jose Mourinho di menit 73 diusir wasit keluar lapangan karena memprotes keputusan pengadil serta ofisial keempat. Tak ada lagi peluang tercipta sehingga skor tetap imbang 1-1 dan laga dilanjutkan ke 2x15 menit extra time.

Miranda! Gol pemain Brasil itu di menit 98 membawa Atletico berbalik unggul 2-1. Diawali crossing Koke dari sayap kanan, bola mengarah ke tiang dekat dan Miranda dengan bebas menanduknya serta menaklukkan Lopez di bawah mistar.

Di menit 103 Gonzalo Higuain melepaskan tembakan dari jarak dekat namun masih bisa dihadang Courtois. Atletico masih unggul 2-1.

Enam menit setelahnya Courtois kembali melakukan penyelamatan gemilang ketika menghadang tembakan Oezil dari jarak dekat.

Pertandingan memanas yang diwarnai keributan antara pemain setelah di menit 114 Ronaldo diusir keluar karena menerima kartu merah. Ronaldo dianggap menghantam wajah Gabi dengan kakinya, padahal dalam tayangan ulang kaki Ronaldo tak mengenai Gabi.

Hingga laga berakhir skor 2-1 tetap bertahan dan Atletico keluar sebagai juara Copa del Rey.

Susunan Pemain

Real Madrid: Diego Lopez, Ramos, Coentrao (Arbeloa 91'), Essien, Albiol, Khedira, Alonso, Modric (Di Maria 91'), Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema (Higuain 91'), Ozil

Atletico Madrid: Courtois, Juanfran, Godin, Miranda, Filipe Luis, Gabi, Mario Suarez, Koke, Turan (Rodriguez 110'), Diego Costa (Adrian 105'), Falcao

SAKSI LIHAT AVANZA 'TERBANG' KE KALIMALANG MASIH BARU

saco-indonesia.com, Seorang saksi mata telah menceritakan peristiwa mobil 'terbang' hingga tenggelam dan hilang di Kalimalang. Hingga kini polisi juga masih harus melakukan pencarian.

Menurut Kardi, saksi mata itu, mobil terbang dan nyungsep ke Kalimalang pada Kamis (23/1) pukul 23.00 WIB malam. Sang sopir bisa menyelamatkan diri dengan berenang.

Saat itu lokasi memang sepi, hanya ada beberapa sopir taksi yang mangkal. Sesaat setelah itu lokasi langsung ramai. Sopir juga telah bercerita bahwa mobil itu baru.

"Malam itu juga dia lapor ke Polres bekasi," kata Kardi.

Karena malam gelap, mobil yang tenggelam belum dapat ditangani. Baru siang ini mobil berusaha dicari oleh petugas Brimob.

Seperti yang telah diketahui, mobil Toyota Avanza melaju dengan kencang dari arah Bekasi menuju Jakarta. Namun tiba-tiba mobil tersebut oleng menabrak pagar besi dan terbang masuk ke Kalimalang. Dalam peristiwa mengerikan itu pengemudi telah berhasil menyelamatkan diri dengan berenang.

Editor : Dian Sukmawati

Para Pekerja di Jeddah Rusuh Membakar gedung Konsulat RI

JEDDAH, Saco-Indonesia.com - Ribuan pekerja Indonesia di Jeddah, Arab Saudi, dikabarkan mengamuk di Konsulat Jendral RI, Minggu (9/6/2013) waktu setempat. Mereka membakar beragam perkakas di pintu masuk konsulat, dan berusaha menerobos untuk melakukan pembakaran gedung. Aksi tersebut dipicu kemarahan atas proses dokumen perjalanan.

"Kami masih memeriksa apakah ada korban atau berapa banyak pekerja terluka," kata Duta Besar Indonesia untuk Arab Saudi, Gatot Abdullah Mansyur seperti dikutip Arab News. Dia mengatakan bahwa semua diplomat dan staf konsuler aman.

Kru Pertahanan Sipil, polisi, pasukan khusus dan ambulans Bulan Sabit Merah turun ke tempat kejadian untuk memulihkan ketertiban. Jalan menuju ke konsulat ditutup.

Saksi mata mengatakan api masih menyala hingga pukul 22.00 waktu setempat. Petugas pemadam kebakaran pun masih terlihat berupaya memadamkannya.

Kerusuhan ini adalah buntut insiden pada Sabtu (8/6/2013). Saat itu para pekerja perempuan Indonesia "menyerbu" konsulat untuk mendapatkan dokumen perjalanan. Setidaknya tiga perempuan terluka dan pingsan.

Para pekerja Indonesia di Arab Saudi yang tak memiliki izin bekerja, punya tenggat waktu hingga 3 Juli 2013 untuk "melegalkan" keberadaan dan aktivitas mereka. Dokumen yang harus dipastikan mereka miliki adalah visa kerja.

Perseteruan antara para pekerja, polisi, dan pejabat konsulat diduga dipicu frustasi para pekerja karena lamanya proses pengurusan dokumen dan kurangnya pengorganisasian di konsulat. "Kami telah mengalami masalah dengan konsulat sejak kami tiba dua hari lalu," kata seorang asisten rumah tangga dari Indonesia, yang tidak ingin namanya dipublikasikan. "Kemarin saya jatuh dan terluka karena konsulat tidak tahu apa yang mereka lakukan dan tidak bisa mengendalikan massa."

Pekeja lainnya yang mengaku bekerja di bidang konstruksi, mengeluh dia tidak bisa masuk ke konsulat untuk mengurus dokumen perjalanan. "Percayalah, sekarang saya hanya ingin pulang," kata dia.

Editor :Liwon Maulana

Rolf Smedvig, Trumpeter in the Empire Brass, Dies at 62

A former member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Smedvig helped found the wide-ranging Empire Brass quintet.

Jim Fanning, 87, Dies; Lifted Baseball in Canada With Expos

Hired in 1968, a year before their first season, Mr. Fanning spent 25 years with the team, managing them to their only playoff appearance in Canada.

Ben E. King, Soulful Singer of ‘Stand by Me,’ Dies at 76

Mr. King sang for the Drifters and found success as a solo performer with hits like “Spanish Harlem.”

Marcel Pronovost, 84, Dies; Hall of Famer Shared in Five N.H.L. Titles

Pronovost, who played for the Red Wings, was not a prolific scorer, but he was a consummate team player with bruising checks and fearless bursts up the ice that could puncture a defense.

Marty Napoleon, 93, Dies; Jazz Pianist Played With Louis Armstrong

Mr. Napoleon was a self-taught musician whose career began in earnest with the orchestra led by Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers.

William Sokolin, Wine Seller Who Broke Famed Bottle, Dies at 85

The bottle Mr. Sokolin famously broke was a 1787 Château Margaux, which was said to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Sokolin had been hoping to sell it for $519,750.

Gene Fullmer, a Brawling Middleweight Champion, Dies at 83

Fullmer, who reigned when fight clubs abounded and Friday night fights were a television staple, was known for his title bouts with Sugar Ray Robinson and Carmen Basilio.

François Michelin, Head of Tire Company, Dies at 88

Under Mr. Michelin’s leadership, which ended when he left the company in 2002, the Michelin Group became the world’s biggest tire maker, establishing a big presence in the United States and other major markets overseas.

Obama Finds a Bolder Voice on Race Issues

As he reflected on the festering wounds deepened by race and grievance that have been on painful display in America’s cities lately, President Obama on Monday found himself thinking about a young man he had just met named Malachi.

A few minutes before, in a closed-door round-table discussion at Lehman College in the Bronx, Mr. Obama had asked a group of black and Hispanic students from disadvantaged backgrounds what could be done to help them reach their goals. Several talked about counseling and guidance programs.

“Malachi, he just talked about — we should talk about love,” Mr. Obama told a crowd afterward, drifting away from his prepared remarks. “Because Malachi and I shared the fact that our dad wasn’t around and that sometimes we wondered why he wasn’t around and what had happened. But really, that’s what this comes down to is: Do we love these kids?”

Many presidents have governed during times of racial tension, but Mr. Obama is the first to see in the mirror a face that looks like those on the other side of history’s ledger. While his first term was consumed with the economy, war and health care, his second keeps coming back to the societal divide that was not bridged by his election. A president who eschewed focusing on race now seems to have found his voice again as he thinks about how to use his remaining time in office and beyond.

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Obama Speaks of a ‘Sense of Unfairness’

In the aftermath of racially charged unrest in places like Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and New York, Mr. Obama came to the Bronx on Monday for the announcement of a new nonprofit organization that is being spun off from his White House initiative called My Brother’s Keeper. Staked by more than $80 million in commitments from corporations and other donors, the new group, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, will in effect provide the nucleus for Mr. Obama’s post-presidency, which will begin in January 2017.

“This will remain a mission for me and for Michelle not just for the rest of my presidency but for the rest of my life,” Mr. Obama said. “And the reason is simple,” he added. Referring to some of the youths he had just met, he said: “We see ourselves in these young men. I grew up without a dad. I grew up lost sometimes and adrift, not having a sense of a clear path. The only difference between me and a lot of other young men in this neighborhood and all across the country is that I grew up in an environment that was a little more forgiving.”

Organizers said the new alliance already had financial pledges from companies like American Express, Deloitte, Discovery Communications and News Corporation. The money will be used to help companies address obstacles facing young black and Hispanic men, provide grants to programs for disadvantaged youths, and help communities aid their populations.

Joe Echevarria, a former chief executive of Deloitte, the accounting and consulting firm, will lead the alliance, and among those on its leadership team or advisory group are executives at PepsiCo, News Corporation, Sprint, BET and Prudential Group Insurance; former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell; Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey; former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.; the music star John Legend; the retired athletes Alonzo Mourning, Jerome Bettis and Shaquille O’Neal; and the mayors of Indianapolis, Sacramento and Philadelphia.

The alliance, while nominally independent of the White House, may face some of the same questions confronting former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as she begins another presidential campaign. Some of those donating to the alliance may have interests in government action, and skeptics may wonder whether they are trying to curry favor with the president by contributing.

“The Obama administration will have no role in deciding how donations are screened and what criteria they’ll set at the alliance for donor policies, because it’s an entirely separate entity,” Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One en route to New York. But he added, “I’m confident that the members of the board are well aware of the president’s commitment to transparency.”

The alliance was in the works before the disturbances last week after the death of Freddie Gray, the black man who suffered fatal injuries while in police custody in Baltimore, but it reflected the evolution of Mr. Obama’s presidency. For him, in a way, it is coming back to issues that animated him as a young community organizer and politician. It was his own struggle with race and identity, captured in his youthful memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” that stood him apart from other presidential aspirants.

But that was a side of him that he kept largely to himself through the first years of his presidency while he focused on other priorities like turning the economy around, expanding government-subsidized health care and avoiding electoral land mines en route to re-election.

After securing a second term, Mr. Obama appeared more emboldened. Just a month after his 2013 inauguration, he talked passionately about opportunity and race with a group of teenage boys in Chicago, a moment aides point to as perhaps the first time he had spoken about these issues in such a personal, powerful way as president. A few months later, he publicly lamented the death of Trayvon Martin, a black Florida teenager, saying that “could have been me 35 years ago.”

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That case, along with public ruptures of anger over police shootings in Ferguson and elsewhere, have pushed the issue of race and law enforcement onto the public agenda. Aides said they imagined that with his presidency in its final stages, Mr. Obama might be thinking more about what comes next and causes he can advance as a private citizen.

That is not to say that his public discussion of these issues has been universally welcomed. Some conservatives said he had made matters worse by seeming in their view to blame police officers in some of the disputed cases.

“President Obama, when he was elected, could have been a unifying leader,” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican candidate for president, said at a forum last week. “He has made decisions that I think have inflamed racial tensions.”

On the other side of the ideological spectrum, some liberal African-American activists have complained that Mr. Obama has not done enough to help downtrodden communities. While he is speaking out more, these critics argue, he has hardly used the power of the presidency to make the sort of radical change they say is necessary.

The line Mr. Obama has tried to straddle has been a serrated one. He condemns police brutality as he defends most officers as honorable. He condemns “criminals and thugs” who looted in Baltimore while expressing empathy with those trapped in a cycle of poverty and hopelessness.

In the Bronx on Monday, Mr. Obama bemoaned the death of Brian Moore, a plainclothes New York police officer who had died earlier in the day after being shot in the head Saturday on a Queens street. Most police officers are “good and honest and fair and care deeply about their communities,” even as they put their lives on the line, Mr. Obama said.

“Which is why in addressing the issues in Baltimore or Ferguson or New York, the point I made was that if we’re just looking at policing, we’re looking at it too narrowly,” he added. “If we ask the police to simply contain and control problems that we ourselves have been unwilling to invest and solve, that’s not fair to the communities, it’s not fair to the police.”

Moreover, if society writes off some people, he said, “that’s not the kind of country I want to live in; that’s not what America is about.”

His message to young men like Malachi Hernandez, who attends Boston Latin Academy in Massachusetts, is not to give up.

“I want you to know you matter,” he said. “You matter to us.”

With Iran Talks, a Tangled Path to Ending Syria’s War

UNITED NATIONS — Wearing pinstripes and a pince-nez, Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations envoy for Syria, arrived at the Security Council one Tuesday afternoon in February and announced that President Bashar al-Assad had agreed to halt airstrikes over Aleppo. Would the rebels, Mr. de Mistura suggested, agree to halt their shelling?

What he did not announce, but everyone knew by then, was that the Assad government had begun a military offensive to encircle opposition-held enclaves in Aleppo and that fierce fighting was underway. It would take only a few days for rebel leaders, having pushed back Syrian government forces, to outright reject Mr. de Mistura’s proposed freeze in the fighting, dooming the latest diplomatic overture on Syria.

Diplomacy is often about appearing to be doing something until the time is ripe for a deal to be done.

Now, with Mr. Assad’s forces having suffered a string of losses on the battlefield and the United States reaching at least a partial rapprochement with Mr. Assad’s main backer, Iran, Mr. de Mistura is changing course. Starting Monday, he is set to hold a series of closed talks in Geneva with the warring sides and their main supporters. Iran will be among them.

In an interview at United Nations headquarters last week, Mr. de Mistura hinted that the changing circumstances, both military and diplomatic, may have prompted various backers of the war to question how much longer the bloodshed could go on.

“Will that have an impact in accelerating the willingness for a political solution? We need to test it,” he said. “The Geneva consultations may be a good umbrella for testing that. It’s an occasion for asking everyone, including the government, if there is any new way that they are looking at a political solution, as they too claim they want.”

He said he would have a better assessment at the end of June, when he expects to wrap up his consultations. That coincides with the deadline for a final agreement in the Iran nuclear talks.

Whether a nuclear deal with Iran will pave the way for a new opening on peace talks in Syria remains to be seen. Increasingly, though, world leaders are explicitly linking the two, with the European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, suggesting last week that a nuclear agreement could spur Tehran to play “a major but positive role in Syria.”

It could hardly come soon enough. Now in its fifth year, the Syrian war has claimed 220,000 lives, prompted an exodus of more than three million refugees and unleashed jihadist groups across the region. “This conflict is producing a question mark in many — where is it leading and whether this can be sustained,” Mr. de Mistura said.

Part Italian, part Swedish, Mr. de Mistura has worked with the United Nations for more than 40 years, but he is more widely known for his dapper style than for any diplomatic coups. Syria is by far the toughest assignment of his career — indeed, two of the organization’s most seasoned diplomats, Lakhdar Brahimi and Kofi Annan, tried to do the job and gave up — and critics have wondered aloud whether Mr. de Mistura is up to the task.

He served as a United Nations envoy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and before that in Lebanon, where a former minister recalled, with some scorn, that he spent many hours sunbathing at a private club in the hills above Beirut. Those who know him say he has a taste for fine suits and can sometimes speak too soon and too much, just as they point to his diplomatic missteps and hyperbole.

They cite, for instance, a news conference in October, when he raised the specter of Srebrenica, where thousands of Muslims were massacred in 1995 during the Balkans war, in warning that the Syrian border town of Kobani could fall to the Islamic State. In February, he was photographed at a party in Damascus, the Syrian capital, celebrating the anniversary of the Iranian revolution just as Syrian forces, aided by Iran, were pummeling rebel-held suburbs of Damascus; critics seized on that as evidence of his coziness with the government.

Mouin Rabbani, who served briefly as the head of Mr. de Mistura’s political affairs unit and has since emerged as one of his most outspoken critics, said Mr. de Mistura did not have the background necessary for the job. “This isn’t someone well known for his political vision or political imagination, and his closest confidants lack the requisite knowledge and experience,” Mr. Rabbani said.

As a deputy foreign minister in the Italian government, Mr. de Mistura was tasked in 2012 with freeing two Italian marines detained in India for shooting at Indian fishermen. He made 19 trips to India, to little effect. One marine was allowed to return to Italy for medical reasons; the other remains in India.

He said he initially turned down the Syria job when the United Nations secretary general approached him last August, only to change his mind the next day, after a sleepless, guilt-ridden night.

Mr. de Mistura compared his role in Syria to that of a doctor faced with a terminally ill patient. His goal in brokering a freeze in the fighting, he said, was to alleviate suffering. He settled on Aleppo as the location for its “fame,” he said, a decision that some questioned, considering that Aleppo was far trickier than the many other lesser-known towns where activists had negotiated temporary local cease-fires.

“Everybody, at least in Europe, are very familiar with the value of Aleppo,” Mr. de Mistura said. “So I was using that as an icebreaker.”

The cease-fire negotiations, to which he had devoted six months, fell apart quickly because of the government’s military offensive in Aleppo the very day of his announcement at the Security Council. Privately, United Nations diplomats said Mr. de Mistura had been manipulated. To this, Mr. de Mistura said only that he was “disappointed and concerned.”

Tarek Fares, a former rebel fighter, said after a recent visit to Aleppo that no Syrian would admit publicly to supporting Mr. de Mistura’s cease-fire proposal. “If anyone said they went to a de Mistura meeting in Gaziantep, they would be arrested,” is how he put it, referring to the Turkish city where negotiations between the two sides were held.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon remains staunchly behind Mr. de Mistura’s efforts. His defenders point out that he is at the center of one of the world’s toughest diplomatic problems, charged with mediating a conflict in which two of the world’s most powerful nations — Russia, which supports Mr. Assad, and the United States, which has called for his ouster — remain deadlocked.

R. Nicholas Burns, a former State Department official who now teaches at Harvard, credited Mr. de Mistura for trying to negotiate a cease-fire even when the chances of success were exceedingly small — and the chances of a political deal even smaller. For his efforts to work, Professor Burns argued, the world powers will first have to come to an agreement of their own.

“He needs the help of outside powers,” he said. “It starts with backers of Assad. That’s Russia and Iran. De Mistura is there, waiting.”

Hard but Hopeful Home to ‘Lot of Freddies’

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Children playing last week in Sandtown-Winchester, the Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray was raised. One young resident called it “a tough community.”

Hard but Hopeful Home to ‘Lot of Freddies’

The neighborhood where Freddie Gray came of age has survived harrowing rates of unemployment, poor health, violent crime and incarceration.

Mike Phillips, Half of Kentucky’s ‘Twin Towers’ of Basketball, Dies at 59

The 6-foot-10 Phillips played alongside the 6-11 Rick Robey on the Wildcats team that won the 1978 N.C.A.A. men’s basketball title.

In Baltimore, National Guard Pullout Begins as Citywide Curfew Is Lifted

David Goldman/Associated Press

National Guard soldiers boarding a truck in Baltimore on Sunday.

Baltimore residents prepared to resume the more familiar rhythms of their lives as days passed without new bouts of widespread rioting and as the National Guard began to pull its troops from the city.

In Baltimore, National Guard Pullout Begins as Citywide Curfew Is Lifted | PAKET UMROH BULAN JANUARI 2016

Sid Tepper Dies at 96; Delivered ‘Red Roses for a Blue Lady’ and Other Songs

Mr. Tepper was not a musical child and had no formal training, but he grew up to write both lyrics and tunes, trading off duties with the other member of the team, Roy C. Bennett.

Harvey R. Miller, Renowned Bankruptcy Lawyer, Dies at 82

Mr. Miller, of the firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, represented companies including Lehman Brothers, General Motors and American Airlines, and mentored many of the top Chapter 11 practitioners today.