saco-indonesia.com, Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) telah memanggil Wakil Ketua Pusat Pelaporan dan Analisis Transaksi Keuang

saco-indonesia.com, Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) telah memanggil Wakil Ketua Pusat Pelaporan dan Analisis Transaksi Keuangan (PPATK), Agus Santoso, terkait penyidikan dalam kasus pemberian Fasilitas Pendanaan Jangka Pendek dan penetapan Bank Century sebagai bank gagal yang berdampak sistemik.

Dia juga akan diperiksa sebagai saksi terkait  dugaan korupsi mantan Deputi V Bank Indonesia, Budi Mulya.

"Yang bersangkutan diperiksa sebagai saksi," kata Kepala Bagian Pemberitaan dan Informasi KPK, Priharsa Nugraha, saat dikonfirmasi, Senin (27/1/2014).

Agus Santoso diketahui pernah menjadi Deputi Direktur Departemen Perencanaaan Strategis dan Hubungan Masyarakat (DPSHM) Bank Indonesia (BI).

Selain Agus, KPK juga berencana memeriksa mantan Direktur Hukum BI Ahmad Fuad, pegawai BI Rudiatin S Djadmiko, mantan pegawai BI, Eddy Sulaiman Yusuf, Deputi Gubernur BI Halim Alamsyah, mantan Pegawai BI Rusli Simanjuntak dan Pegawai BI Doddy Budi Waluyo4

Editor : Dian Sukmawati

saco-indonesia.com, Tak dapat dipungkiri kalau kebanyakan dari kita tak dapat menikmati alat fitness atau alat olahraga. Juga sebuah kebenaran kalau setiap orang di dunia ini dapat keuntungan dari alat fitnes dan program nutrisi yang tepat. Sebelumnya pastikan anda menghubungi distributor alat fitnes atau distributor alat olahraga untuk kelengkapan alat fitnes anda. Berikut 10 tips untuk mendapatkan latihan rutin Anda mulai hari ini.

saco-indonesia.com, Tak dapat dipungkiri kalau kebanyakan dari kita tak dapat menikmati alat fitness atau alat olahraga. Juga sebuah kebenaran kalau setiap orang di dunia ini dapat keuntungan dari alat fitnes dan program nutrisi yang tepat. Sebelumnya pastikan anda menghubungi distributor alat fitnes atau distributor alat olahraga untuk kelengkapan alat fitnes anda. Berikut 10 tips untuk mendapatkan latihan rutin Anda mulai hari ini.

1. Rancang Tujuan Ralistis Dan Nyata

Merancang tujuan sederhana seperti ingin mengurangi berat badan tidaklah efektif. Buat yang lebih spesifik. Sebagai contoh, 'Aku ingin mengurangi 10 kg hingga 5 September.

2. Ukur Peningkatan Anda

Ukur setiap peningkatan dan lakukan secara rutin. Anda tak dapat mengukur seberapa besar berat badan Anda berkurang saat Anda tak mengukurnya pada permulaan.

3. Buat Data Untuk Tiap Latihan

Masing-masing dan tiap sesi latihan alat fitnes harusnya di data. Pertahankan ukuran latihan Anda dan ciptakan jurnal sukses Anda sendiri.

4. Padukan Kardio Anda

Buat sesi kardio alat fitness beragam secara intensitas dan panjangnya. Coba kardio baru dan pertahankan tetap segar.

5. Latihan Keras Bukan Hanya Untuk Pria

Setiap orang boleh berlatih alat olahraga dengan keras. Latihan keras membangun otot dan meningkatkan kepadatan tulang. Latih semua grup otot utama setiap 1-3 kali per minggu.

6. Istirahat

Cukup tidur selama 7 hingga 9 jam tiap malam. Begitu pula istirahatkan otot Anda dengan tidak melakukan latihan selama 1 hingga 2 hari setiap minggu.

7. Pemanasan

Lakukan pemanasan selama 5 hingga 10 menit sebelum Anda melakukan latihan inti. Anda harus mengawali dengan menaikan suhu tubuh terlebih dahulu.

8. Pendinginan

Lakukan pendinginan dengan perenggangan pada keseluruhan tubuh. Ini akan membantu meningkatkan flesibelitas dan mengurangi sakit pada otot di hari berikutnya.

9. Nutrisi Merupakan Setengah Dari Pertempuran

Konsumsi makanan dengan layak sebagai imbangan dari latihan rutin Anda. Makan makanan sehat dan tinggalkan diet ketat selamanya dalam kehidupan Anda.

10. Terus Beri Motivasi

Ajak teman untuk ikut berlatih atau lakukan latihan dengan pelatih pribadi. Lakukan apapun untuk membuat Anda berkomitmen. Jika Anda mulai kendor, usir rasa bersalah dan lakukan kembali latihan rutin Anda secepat mungkin.

Demikian 10 tips untuk membangun fondasi dari program toko olahraga yang aman dan efektif. Siapapun dapat mengurangi lemak-lemak di tbuh dengan melakukan latihan yang realistis dan paduan nutrisi cukup. Jika Anda memiliki masalah kesehatan, lebih baik hubungi dokter dan toko olahraga Anda sebelum memulai melakukan fitness dan menghubungi distributor alat olahraga atau distributor alat fitnes untuk rekomendasi alat yang bagus. Lakukan latihan secara rutin dan Anda akan lebih sehat serta bahagia dari hari ke hari.

Kebakaran melanda sebuah rumah di Cimpaeun, Tapos, Depok, Jawa Barat, semalam. Kebakaran ini menyebabkan seorang nenek dan bocah

Kebakaran melanda sebuah rumah di Cimpaeun, Tapos, Depok, Jawa Barat, semalam. Kebakaran ini menyebabkan seorang nenek dan bocah berusia 8 tahun tewas.

"Mereka berdua terjebak dalam rumah tersebut," kata Cucun, petugas pemadam kebakaran Sudin Depok kepada detikcom, Senin (3/5/2013).

Cucun mengatakan, penyebab kebakaran tersebut masih diselidiki oleh petugas kepolisian. "Kalau penyebabnya masih diselidiki," katanya.

Menurut informasi Humas Polda Metro Jaya, kebakaran ini terjadi sekitar pukul 22.30 WIB di kediaman Nurdin. Dua korban yang tewas ialah Sukatna (75) dan Widya, seorang bocah berusia 8 tahun.

Saco-Indonesia.com - Di jaman yang serba modern dan orang-orangnya memiliki aktivitas segunung seperti saat ini, hal-hal yang praktis menjadi yang paling dicari untuk memenuhi kebutuhan.

Saco-Indonesia.com - Di jaman yang serba modern dan orang-orangnya memiliki aktivitas segunung seperti saat ini, hal-hal yang praktis menjadi yang paling dicari untuk memenuhi kebutuhan. Salah satunya ditunjukkan dengan semakin banyaknya produk-produk instan, terutama dalam hal makanan dan minuman.

Tak hanya vitamin yang dikemas praktis dalam bentuk suplemen, minuman seperti jus buah pun telah banyak diproduksi dalam kemasan. Hal ini tentu memudahkan karena tak membuat orang repot membuat jus buah sendiri dan bisa dikonsumsi sambil mengerjakan hal lainnya.

Namun, di balik semua kepraktisan yang ditawarkan oleh produk-produk minuman jus buah, apakah jus dalam kemasan tersebut cukup sehat untuk dikonsumsi? Kita tahu bahwa semua makanan kemasan pasti mengandung bahan pengawet. Bagaimana kita mengetahui bahwa jus tersebut dibuat dari buah asli dan nutrisi di dalamnya masih utuh?

Boldsky (18/03) memberikan beberapa cara untuk membantu Anda menentukan apakah jus buah kemasan yang Anda beli di swalayan cukup sehat untuk dikonsumsi dan membandingkannya dengan jus buah asli, berikut ini.

1. Baca labelnya
Semua jus buah kemasan pasti memiliki gambar buah-buahan segar di kemasannya. Namun jangan tertipu dengan gambar yang mengundang selera itu. Anda hanya perlu menemukan tulisan dalam kemasan tersebut. Pastikan dalam kemasan tersebut tertulis jelas "jus buah" dan bukannya "minuman buah." Jika yang Anda beli bertuliskan "minuman buah" sudah jelas yang ada di dalamnya bukan jus buah yang Anda harapkan.

2. Baca komposisi
Apa yang diharapkan seseorang ketika membeli jus buah kemasan? Mereka tentu berharap di dalamnya terdapat jus buah. Namun sayangnya tak semua jus buah kemasan semacam itu. Yang ada di dalamnya adalah air, konsentrat buah, dan penambah rasa yang akan memberikan rasa buah yang Anda inginkan. Belum lagi ditambah dengan mineral dan vitamin, serta tambahan pemanis buatan, sirup gula, dan pengawet.

3. Bandingkan rasa
Indera perasa manusia tak bisa berbohong. Lakukan tes sederhana untuk membandingkan rasa jus buah sungguhan yang Anda buat sendiri dengan jus buah kemasan yang Anda beli. Anda akan menyadari perbedaan rasa dari keduanya. Tinggal pilih mana yang paling Anda sukai.

4. Bandingkan masa kedaluwarsa
Berapa lama jus buah segar bisa bertahan lama? Tak lebih dari beberapa jam atau seharian. Bahkan faktanya, jus buah segar harus segera diminum dalam hitungan menit agar mendapatkan manfaat optimal di dalamnya. Sementara itu, jus buah kemasan bisa bertahan hingga sembilan bulan sampai satu tahun. Apakah mungkin jus buah kemasan ini asli? Anda sudah tahu jawabannya.

5. Cari bulir buah di dalamnya
Salah satu keunggulan jus buah yang asli adalah dari bulir buah yang ada di dalamnya. Tak ada jus buah kemasan yang mengandung bulir buah lebih banyak dari jus buah asli. Proses pengemasan jus buah akan mengambil semua manfaat kesehatan yang ada di dalamnya. Yang tersisa hanya kalori dan gula.

Poin-poin di atas sangat jelas dan bersifat mendasar. Semua orang tentu bisa mengerti mengapa jus buah kemasan tak lebih sehat dibandingkan dengan jus buah asli. Jika menginginkan manfaat terbaik dari buah, lebih baik pilih jus buah segar yang asli dibandingkan dengan kemasan. Akan lebih baik lagi jika Anda makan buah secara utuh, karena menjadikannya jus akan mengurangi nutrisi dan vitamin di dalamnya.

Editor : Maulana Lee

Sumber : kompas.com

Cara Memilih Lampu Flash/blitz Studio Photo *. Pilihlah lampu baik merk dan tipe nya berdasarkan KEPERLUAN pemotretan yang se

Cara Memilih Lampu Flash/blitz Studio Photo

*. Pilihlah lampu baik merk dan tipe nya berdasarkan KEPERLUAN pemotretan yang sering anda lakukan. Karena biasanya yang telah menjadi pertimbangan utama adalah biaya, menurut saya pribadi adalah kurang tepat.

Artinya begini, memiliki seperangkat lampu studio tentunya adalah hasil dari sebuah pemikiran dan skala prioritas. Kenapa kok anda harus beli lampu? Ini jawabannya harus anda temukan yang paling tepat agar investasi terhadap lampu juga tidak sia-sia. Misalkan begini : anda adalah fotografer yang lebih sering memotret di studio yang kecil, dan untuk pemotretan yang sederhana (pas foto, foto keluarga sederhana, dll). Untuk keperluan itu anda mungkin cukup membeli studio flash 2 unit dengan power 250ws, dan asesoris standar (payung atau softbox), karena apabila anda membeli power yang lebih besar (500 atau bahkan 1000) mungkin tidak akan terpakai maksimal jika tidak di tempat luas dll.    

Lain halnya bila anda memerlukan space yang lebih jauh/lebar antara lampu dan subyek foto. Power flash perlu yang lebih besar, dan asesoris pun juga perlu yang berbeda. Jangan sampai anda sudah terlanjur membeli lampu paket murah yang ternyata ber-power kecil yang notabene kemampuannya kurang untuk keperluan yang ini. Dan terus berlanjut ke lampu-lampu yang bisa mengakomodir berbagai keperluan pemotretan yang lebih ekstrem, di mana anda akan memerlukan lampu yang telah mempunyai daya tahan tinggi, tahan panas, tahan banting dan berkemampuan tinggi. Di sini lah letaknya perbedaan mencolok antara lampu kelas 1, kelas 2 dan kelas 3. Bukan berarti lampu kelas 1 selalu bagus dan lampu kelas 3 selalu underdog, tidak.

Kembali lagi tinggal bagaimana anda akan menggunakannya dalam kegiatan anda berfotografi. Untuk pemakaian biasa, lampu kelas 3, asalkan anda tidak menuntut yang ini-itu, sudah cukup untuk bisa berkreasi dalam menghasilkan foto yang bagus. Tapi sebaliknya, bila anda memaksanya untuk bekerja secara forsir maka pada satu saat bukan tidak mungkin akan rusak lebih cepat. Lampu kelas 1 pun bukan merupakan investasi yang tepat apabila keperluan dan gaya anda memotret biasa-biasa saja, atau pangsa pasar yang anda tuju bukan yang terlalu menuntut. Biaya besar pembelian lampu kelas 1 bisa dialihkan untuk membeli peralatan yang lain.

*. Setelah anda menentukan lampu flash yang cocok untuk keperluan Foto Portrait seperti apa yang ingin anda miliki, maka pertimbangan selanjutnya adalah BERAPA dana yang anda sediakan. Urusan uang memang krusial, tapi cobalah untuk menempatkan faktor ini di urutan kedua setelah menentukan jenis lampu yang akan anda miliki. Karena jika kita tempatkan di urutan pertama, biasanya pertimbangannya hanya berdasarkan nilai ekonomis, faktor teknisnya (seperti saya sebut di atas) jadi terabaikan.

Setelah anda pilih tipe lampu seperti apa yang anda perlukan, anda sesuaikan dengan budget yang anda miliki, setelah itu baru anda pilih merk apa yang sesuai budget tersebut. Tentunya pemilihan merk mana yang dipilih sudah melalui pertimbangan yang mana yang layanan purna jualnya (servis, replacement, dll) meyakinkan.

Memilih untuk pergi berwisata ke luar kota bersama keluarga dan teman terdekat memang sangat menyenangkan. Namun jika berpergian

Memilih untuk pergi berwisata ke luar kota bersama keluarga dan teman terdekat memang sangat menyenangkan. Namun jika berpergian ke luar kota dengan jumlah orang yang banyak dan tidak memiliki alat transportasi akan dapat menjadi kerepotan tersendiri jika harus menggunakan transportasi umum. Apalagi ke daerah-daerah dengan akses transportasi umum yang kurang memadai.

Nah, salah satu cara yang bisa dilakukan adalah dengan menyewa mobil dengan sopir. Memang lebih enak memilih sewa mobil jakarta lengkap dengan sopirnya seperti yang menjadi salah satu layanan di trisanggaraya.com. Selain lebih mudah untuk berpergian, sopir tersebut juga telah mengetahui daerah yang akan dituju. Namun, kita harus tetap memperhatikan beberapa hal agar penyewaan mobil dan perjalanan wisata Anda tidak sia-sia. Berikut beberapa tips saat menyewa mobil dengan sopir.

Pertama, buat catatan kecil mengenai perjalanan Anda dengan rinci, yakni tempat-tempat mana aja yang akan Anda dan keluarga kunjungi. Setelah itu berikan catatan tersebut kepada sopir untuk ditentukan dan mengurutkan tempat-tempat mana yang terlebih dahulu akan dituju.

Kedua, pastikan mengenai hal-hal yang bersifat sensitif seperti biaya yang harus dikeluarkan untuk menyewa mobil bersama sopir, seperti biaya bensin selama perjalanan, uang makan, uang parkir, uang tiket masuk objek wisata, dan uang tips. Sehingga perjalanan Anda tidak terganggu oleh hal-hal sepele.

Ketiga, sebaiknya Anda telah melakukan riset terlebih dahulu mengenai tempat yang akan dituju melalui internet, media cetak, atau pengalaman teman. Mulai dari letak penginapan, jarak tempuh, dan estimasi biaya yang akan dikeluarkan.

Keempat, disiplinlah dengan waktu dan perkirakan waktu belanja Anda. Bila salah menggunakan waktu dengan baik, segala rencana yang telah disusun akan berantakan. Terlebih lagi hal tersebut dapat memperlama waktu penyewaan dan Anda bisa dikenakan tambahan biaya.

Kelima, Umumnya, pemakaian mobil dengan sopir berkisar antara 10-12 jam sehari, tergantung di masing-masing daerah di Indonesia. Bahkan beberapa daerah juga ada yang menyewakan mobil dan sopir selama 24 jam. Pastikan Anda memakai mobil tak melebihi waktu yang disepakati.

Kelima, bersikaplah dengan sopan terhadap sopir yang telah mengantarkan Anda. Namun, jangan terlalu mudah percaya kepada orang yang baru Anda kenali. Intinya, gunakan insting Anda untuk tetap berhati-hati selama berwisata. Hal ini juga untuk menjaga keamanan dan kenyamanan Anda dalam berwisata. Terlebih apabila memakai jasa sewa mobil jakarta, maka bisa dibuktikan dan dijadikan referensi ke teman dan relasi serta keluarga Anda.

Mengaku pelajar SMK di Tangerang, Ri yang berusia 18 tahun , telah mencuri burung jalak seharga Rp400 ribu di kawasan Cipondoh,

Mengaku pelajar SMK di Tangerang, Ri yang berusia 18 tahun , telah mencuri burung jalak seharga Rp400 ribu di kawasan Cipondoh, Kota Tangerang. Namun perbuatannya telah kepergok pemilik burung, Isrok yang meneriakinya maling. Warga yang mendengar teriakan tersebut telah mengejar pelaku dan berhasil menangkapnya. Kesal dengan ulah si pencuri burung ini, massa pun juga sempat memberi bogem mentah kepada Ri. Rekan pelaku yang menunggu di atas motor berhasil kabur. Ri mengaku saat pulang sekolah ia diajak temannya De untuk mencuri burung jalak suren. Namun, sial saat burung ditenteng dipergoki pemiliknya Isrok. Tersangka menjelaskan, sudah tiga kali mencuri burung, baru kali ini ketangkap. Ia pun tampak sedih karena tidak bisa melanjutkan sekolah dan harus menghuni hotel prodeo untuk waktu yang cukup lama. “Saya menyesal Pak,” katanya sambil menangis. Kanit Reskrim Polsek Cipondoh AKP Abdul Jana juga menytakan, belakangan ini banyak warga kehilangan burung dan pencurinya rata-rata masih berusia remaja. “Pelaku telah dijerat pasal 363 KUHP tentang pencurian dengan ancaman 4 tahun,”tegasnya.

Late in April, after Native American actors walked off in disgust from the set of Adam Sandler’s latest film, a western sendup that its distributor, Netflix, has defended as being equally offensive to all, a glow of pride spread through several Native American communities.

Tantoo Cardinal, a Canadian indigenous actress who played Black Shawl in “Dances With Wolves,” recalled thinking to herself, “It’s come.” Larry Sellers, who starred as Cloud Dancing in the 1990s television show “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” thought, “It’s about time.” Jesse Wente, who is Ojibwe and directs film programming at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, found himself encouraged and surprised. There are so few film roles for indigenous actors, he said, that walking off the set of a major production showed real mettle.

But what didn’t surprise Mr. Wente was the content of the script. According to the actors who walked off the set, the film, titled “The Ridiculous Six,” included a Native American woman who passes out and is revived after white men douse her with alcohol, and another woman squatting to urinate while lighting a peace pipe. “There’s enough history at this point to have set some expectations around these sort of Hollywood depictions,” Mr. Wente said.

The walkout prompted a rhetorical “What do you expect from an Adam Sandler film?,” and a Netflix spokesman said that in the movie, blacks, Mexicans and whites were lampooned as well. But Native American actors and critics said a broader issue was at stake. While mainstream portrayals of native peoples have, Mr. Wente said, become “incrementally better” over the decades, he and others say, they remain far from accurate and reflect a lack of opportunities for Native American performers. What’s more, as Native Americans hunger for representation on screen, critics say the absence of three-dimensional portrayals has very real off-screen consequences.

“Our people are still healing from historical trauma,” said Loren Anthony, one of the actors who walked out. “Our youth are still trying to figure out who they are, where they fit in this society. Kids are killing themselves. They’re not proud of who they are.” They also don’t, he added, see themselves on prime time television or the big screen. Netflix noted while about five people walked off the “The Ridiculous Six” set, 100 or so Native American actors and extras stayed.

But in interviews, nearly a dozen Native American actors and film industry experts said that Mr. Sandler’s humor perpetuated decades-old negative stereotypes. Mr. Anthony said such depictions helped feed the despondency many Native Americans feel, with deadly results: Native Americans have the highest suicide rate out of all the country’s ethnicities.

The on-screen problem is twofold, Mr. Anthony and others said: There’s a paucity of roles for Native Americans — according to the Screen Actors Guild in 2008 they accounted for 0.3 percent of all on-screen parts (those figures have yet to be updated), compared to about 2 percent of the general population — and Native American actors are often perceived in a narrow way.

In his Peabody Award-winning documentary “Reel Injun,” the Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond explored Hollywood depictions of Native Americans over the years, and found they fell into a few stereotypical categories: the Noble Savage, the Drunk Indian, the Mystic, the Indian Princess, the backward tribal people futilely fighting John Wayne and manifest destiny. While the 1990 film “Dances With Wolves” won praise for depicting Native Americans as fully fleshed out human beings, not all indigenous people embraced it. It was still told, critics said, from the colonialists’ point of view. In an interview, John Trudell, a Santee Sioux writer, actor (“Thunderheart”) and the former chairman of the American Indian Movement, described the film as “a story of two white people.”

“God bless ‘Dances with Wolves,’ ” Michael Horse, who played Deputy Hawk in “Twin Peaks,” said sarcastically. “Even ‘Avatar.’ Someone’s got to come save the tribal people.”

Dan Spilo, a partner at Industry Entertainment who represents Adam Beach, one of today’s most prominent Native American actors, said while typecasting dogs many minorities, it is especially intractable when it comes to Native Americans. Casting directors, he said, rarely cast them as police officers, doctors or lawyers. “There’s the belief that the Native American character should be on reservations or riding a horse,” he said.

“We don’t see ourselves,” Mr. Horse said. “We’re still an antiquated culture to them, and to the rest of the world.”

Ms. Cardinal said she was once turned down for the role of the wife of a child-abusing cop because the filmmakers felt that casting her would somehow be “too political.”

Another sore point is the long run of white actors playing American Indians, among them Burt Lancaster, Rock Hudson, Audrey Hepburn and, more recently, Johnny Depp, whose depiction of Tonto in the 2013 film “Lone Ranger,” was viewed as racist by detractors. There are, of course, exceptions. The former A&E series “Longmire,” which, as it happens, will now be on Netflix, was roundly praised for its depiction of life on a Northern Cheyenne reservation, with Lou Diamond Phillips, who is of Cherokee descent, playing a Northern Cheyenne man.

Others also point to the success of Mr. Beach, who played a Mohawk detective in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and landed a starring role in the forthcoming D C Comics picture “Suicide Squad.” Mr. Beach said he had come across insulting scripts backed by people who don’t see anything wrong with them.

“I’d rather starve than do something that is offensive to my ancestral roots,” Mr. Beach said. “But I think there will always be attempts to drawn on the weakness of native people’s struggles. The savage Indian will always be the savage Indian. The white man will always be smarter and more cunning. The cavalry will always win.”

The solution, Mr. Wente, Mr. Trudell and others said, lies in getting more stories written by and starring Native Americans. But Mr. Wente noted that while independent indigenous film has blossomed in the last two decades, mainstream depictions have yet to catch up. “You have to stop expecting for Hollywood to correct it, because there seems to be no ability or desire to correct it,” Mr. Wente said.

There have been calls to boycott Netflix but, writing for Indian Country Today Media Network, which first broke news of the walk off, the filmmaker Brian Young noted that the distributor also offered a number of films by or about Native Americans.

The furor around “The Ridiculous Six” may drive more people to see it. Then one of the questions that Mr. Trudell, echoing others, had about the film will be answered: “Who the hell laughs at this stuff?”

Mr. Bartoszewski was given honorary Israeli citizenship for his work to save Jews during World War II and later surprised even himself by being instrumental in reconciling Poland and Germany.

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.

Judge Patterson helped to protect the rights of Attica inmates after the prison riot in 1971 and later served on the Federal District Court in Manhattan.

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.”

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

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Last summer at a writers’ workshop in Oregon, the novelists Anthony Doerr, Karen Russell and Elissa Schappell were chatting over cocktails when they realized they had all published work in the same magazine. It wasn’t one of the usual literary outlets, like Tin House, The Paris Review or The New Yorker. It was Rhapsody, an in-flight magazine for United Airlines.

It seemed like a weird coincidence. Then again, considering Rhapsody’s growing roster of A-list fiction writers, maybe not. Since its first issue hit plane cabins a year and a half ago, Rhapsody has published original works by literary stars like Joyce Carol Oates, Rick Moody, Amy Bloom, Emma Straub and Mr. Doerr, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction two weeks ago.

As airlines try to distinguish their high-end service with luxuries like private sleeping chambers, showers, butler service and meals from five-star chefs, United Airlines is offering a loftier, more cerebral amenity to its first-class and business-class passengers: elegant prose by prominent novelists. There are no airport maps or disheartening lists of in-flight meal and entertainment options in Rhapsody. Instead, the magazine has published ruminative first-person travel accounts, cultural dispatches and probing essays about flight by more than 30 literary fiction writers.

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An airline might seem like an odd literary patron. But as publishers and writers look for new ways to reach readers in a shaky retail climate, many have formed corporate alliances with transit companies, including American Airlines, JetBlue and Amtrak, that provide a captive audience.

Mark Krolick, United Airlines’ managing director of marketing and product development, said the quality of the writing in Rhapsody brings a patina of sophistication to its first-class service, along with other opulent touches like mood lighting, soft music and a branded scent.

“The high-end leisure or business-class traveler has higher expectations, even in the entertainment we provide,” he said.

Some of Rhapsody’s contributing writers say they were lured by the promise of free airfare and luxury accommodations provided by United, as well as exposure to an elite audience of some two million first-class and business-class travelers.

“It’s not your normal Park Slope Community Bookstore types who read Rhapsody,” Mr. Moody, author of the 1994 novel “The Ice Storm,” who wrote an introspective, philosophical piece about traveling to the Aran Islands of Ireland for Rhapsody, said in an email. “I’m not sure I myself am in that Rhapsody demographic, but I would like them to buy my books one day.”

In addition to offering travel perks, the magazine pays well and gives writers freedom, within reason, to choose their subject matter and write with style. Certain genres of flight stories are off limits, naturally: no plane crashes or woeful tales of lost luggage or rude flight attendants, and nothing too risqué.

“We’re not going to have someone write about joining the mile-high club,” said Jordan Heller, the editor in chief of Rhapsody. “Despite those restrictions, we’ve managed to come up with a lot of high-minded literary content.”

Guiding writers toward the right idea occasionally requires some gentle prodding. When Rhapsody’s executive editor asked Ms. Russell to contribute an essay about a memorable flight experience, she first pitched a story about the time she was chaperoning a group of teenagers on a trip to Europe, and their delayed plane sat at the airport in New York for several hours while other passengers got progressively drunker.

“He pointed out that disaster flights are not what people want to read about when they’re in transit, and very diplomatically suggested that maybe people want to read something that casts air travel in a more positive light,” said Ms. Russell, whose novel “Swamplandia!” was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize.

She turned in a nostalgia-tinged essay about her first flight on a trip to Disney World when she was 6. “The Magic Kingdom was an anticlimax,” she wrote. “What ride could compare to that first flight?”

Ms. Oates also wrote about her first flight, in a tiny yellow propeller plane piloted by her father. The novelist Joyce Maynard told of the constant disappointment of never seeing her books in airport bookstores and the thrill of finally spotting a fellow plane passenger reading her novel “Labor Day.” Emily St. John Mandel, who was a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction last year, wrote about agonizing over which books to bring on a long flight.

“There’s nobody that’s looked down their noses at us as an in-flight magazine,” said Sean Manning, the magazine’s executive editor. “As big as these people are in the literary world, there’s still this untapped audience for them of luxury travelers.”

United is one of a handful of companies showcasing work by literary writers as a way to elevate their brands and engage customers. Chipotle has printed original work from writers like Toni Morrison, Jeffrey Eugenides and Barbara Kingsolver on its disposable cups and paper bags. The eyeglass company Warby Parker hosts parties for authors and sells books from 14 independent publishers in its stores.

JetBlue offers around 40 e-books from HarperCollins and Penguin Random House on its free wireless network, allowing passengers to read free samples and buy and download books. JetBlue will start offering 11 digital titles from Simon & Schuster soon. Amtrak recently forged an alliance with Penguin Random House to provide free digital samples from 28 popular titles, which passengers can buy and download over Amtrak’s admittedly spotty wireless service.

Amtrak is becoming an incubator for literary talent in its own right. Last year, it started a residency program, offering writers a free long-distance train trip and complimentary food. More than 16,000 writers applied and 24 made the cut.

Like Amtrak, Rhapsody has found that writers are eager to get onboard. On a rainy spring afternoon, Rhapsody’s editorial staff sat around a conference table discussing the June issue, which will feature an essay by the novelist Hannah Pittard and an unpublished short story by the late Elmore Leonard.

“Do you have that photo of Elmore Leonard? Can I see it?” Mr. Heller, the editor in chief, asked Rhapsody’s design director, Christos Hannides. Mr. Hannides slid it across the table and noted that they also had a photograph of cowboy spurs. “It’s very simple; it won’t take away from the literature,” he said.

Rhapsody’s office, an open space with exposed pipes and a vaulted brick ceiling, sits in Dumbo at the epicenter of literary Brooklyn, in the same converted tea warehouse as the literary journal N+1 and the digital publisher Atavist. Two of the magazine’s seven staff members hold graduate degrees in creative writing. Mr. Manning, the executive editor, has published a memoir and edited five literary anthologies.

Mr. Manning said Rhapsody was conceived from the start as a place for literary novelists to write with voice and style, and nobody had been put off that their work would live in plane cabins and airport lounges.

Still, some contributors say they wish the magazine were more widely circulated.

“I would love it if I could read it,” said Ms. Schappell, a Brooklyn-based novelist who wrote a feature story for Rhapsody’s inaugural issue. “But I never fly first class.”