Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari is a Finnish politician, the tenth President of Finland, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a United Nations diplomat and mediator noted for his international peace work. Ahtisaari was a United Nations special envoy for Kosovo, charged with organizing the Kosovo status process negotiations, aimed at resolving a long-running dispute in Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. In October 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts"; the Nobel statement said that Ahtisaari has played a prominent role in resolving serious and long-lasting conflicts, including ones in Namibia, Aceh and Iraq. Martti Ahtisaari was born in Finland, his father, Oiva Ahtisaari took Finnish citizenship in 1929 and Finnicized his surname from Adolfsen in 1936. The Continuation War took Martti's father to the front as an NCO army mechanic, while his mother, moved to Kuopio with her son to escape immediate danger from the war.

Kuopio was where Ahtisaari spent most of his childhood attending the Kuopion Lyseo high school. In 1952, Martti Ahtisaari moved to Oulu with his family to seek employment. There he continued his education in high school, graduating in 1952, he joined the local YMCA. After completing his military service, he began to study through a distance-learning course at Oulu teachers' college, he was able to live at home while attending the two-year course which enabled him to qualify as a primary-school teacher in 1959. Besides his native language, Ahtisaari speaks Swedish, French and German. In 1960, he moved to Karachi, Pakistan, to lead the Swedish Pakistani Institute's physical education training establishment, where he became accustomed to a more international environment. In addition to managing the students' home, Ahtisaari's job involved training teachers, he returned to Finland in 1963, became active in non-governmental organizations responsible for aid to developing countries. He joined the international students' organisation AIESEC, where he discovered new passions about diversity and diplomacy.

In 1965, he joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in its Bureau for International Development Aid becoming the assistant head of the department. In 1968, he married Eeva Irmeli Hyvärinen; the couple has Marko Ahtisaari, a technology entrepreneur and musician. Ahtisaari spent several years as a diplomatic representative from Finland, he served as Finland's Ambassador to Tanzania from 1973 to 1977. As UN Deputy Secretary-General 1977–1981 and as United Nations Commissioner for Namibia from 1976 to 1981, working to secure the independence of Namibia from the Republic of South Africa. Between 1987–1991 Ahtisaari was the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations for administration and management. Following the death of a UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, on Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988 – on the eve of the signing of the Tripartite Accord at UN Headquarters – Ahtisaari was sent to Namibia in April 1989 as the UN Special Representative to head the United Nations Transition Assistance Group.

Because of the illegal incursion of SWAPO troops from Angola, the South African appointed Administrator-General, Louis Pienaar, sought Ahtisaari's agreement to the deployment of SADF troops to stabilize the situation. Ahtisaari took advice from British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, visiting the region at the time, approved the SADF deployment. A period of intense fighting ensued. In July 1989, Glenys Kinnock and Tessa Blackstone of the British Council of Churches visited Namibia and reported: "There is a widespread feeling that too many concessions were made to South African personnel and preferences and that Martti Ahtisaari was not forceful enough in his dealings with the South Africans."Perhaps because of his reluctance to authorise this SADF deployment, Ahtisaari was alleged to have been targeted by the South African Civil Cooperation Bureau. According to a hearing in September 2000 of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, two CCB operatives were tasked not to kill Ahtisaari, but to give him "a good hiding".

To carry out the assault, Barnard had planned to use the grip handle of a metal saw as a knuckleduster. In the event, Ahtisaari did not attend the meeting at the Keetmanshoop Hotel, where Le Roux and Barnard lay in wait for him, thus Ahtisaari escaped injury. After the independence elections of 1989, Ahtisaari was appointed an honorary Namibian citizen. South Africa gave him the O R Tambo award for "his outstanding achievement as a diplomat and commitment to the cause of freedom in Africa and peace in the world". Ahtisaari served as UN undersecretary general for administration and management from 1987 to 1991 causing mixed feelings inside the organisation during an internal investigation of massive fraud; when Ahtisaari revealed in 1990 that he had secretly lengthened the grace period allowing UN officials to return misappropriated taxpayer money from the original three months to three years, the investigators were furious. The 340 officials found guilty of fraud were able to return money after their crime had been proven.

The harshest punishment was the firing of twenty corrupt officials. Ahtisaari's presidential campaign in Finland began when he was still a me

Interstate 440 known as the Raleigh Beltline, the Cliff Benson Beltline, or locally as just The Beltline, is an Interstate Highway in the US state of North Carolina. I-440 is a 16.4-mile-long partial beltway. I-440 begins in west Raleigh at an interchange with I-40, as a continuation of US Highway 64 /US 1 and traverses a residential area in west Raleigh; the freeway makes a turn toward the east, crossing US 70, Six Forks Road, Wake Forest Road. US 1 branches north off of I-440 at Capital Boulevard, becoming US 401/US 1. I-440 turns toward the southeast and follows a brief concurrency with US 64 Business before intersecting I-87/US 64/US 264. US 64 is concurrent with I-440 along the remainder of the road's southwesterly routing. Exit 16 is the last exit on I-440, where I-440 splits to become I-40 West; the Raleigh Beltline was formed from a number of highway segments, the earliest of, in place since 1959. The loop was completed in 1984 under multiple route designations. To avoid confusion along the beltline, I-440 was routed along the entirety of the beltline and shared a concurrency with its parent, Interstate 40, along the loop's southern segment.

In 2008, the I-440 designation was removed from the section of I-40/US 64 in southeast Raleigh. The highway's original "inner" and "outer" designations were removed and replaced with compass directions; the easternmost two miles of the I-440 was rebuilt in 2015 as part of the larger widening project along I-40 in South Raleigh, while the westernmost four miles, the oldest segment and one, not up to Interstate standards, is undergoing widening and upgrading and is scheduled to be complete by 2023. I-440 begins on the western side of Raleigh at an interchange between I-40/US 1/US 64, heading northeast concurrently with US 1. US 1/US 64 continues to the southwest on the same freeway; the freeway has an interchange with Jones Franklin Road just over 0.5 miles from its western terminus. Continuing northeast, the freeway runs between residential neighborhoods and has another interchange with Western Boulevard. From there, the freeway begins to turn toward the north and completes the turn after a partial cloverleaf interchange with North Carolina Highway 54.

North of that interchange, the freeway continues west of Meredith College and east of North Carolina State University's Centennial Biomedical Campus. East of there, I-440 has a cloverleaf interchange with Wade Avenue, which provides access to PNC Arena and Carter–Finley Stadium; the freeway turns to the northeast to have an interchange with Lake Boone Trail. Approaching US 70, the freeway makes another slight turn toward the northeast. An incomplete interchange at exit 6 serves Ridge Road, directly before the US 70 cloverleaf interchange at exit 7. From there, the freeway turns to the east and runs between more neighborhoods in the North Hills area of Raleigh. After an interchange with Six Forks Road, which provides access to the North Hills shopping center, I-440 turns southeasterly; the freeway passes south of Duke Raleigh Hospital after an interchange with Wake Forest Road. Continuing to the southeast, the freeway crosses over Atlantic Avenue along with a railroad operated by CSX Transportation.

Turning again to the southeast, a cloverleaf interchange with Capital Boulevard marks the end of the US 1 concurrency, as US 1 turns to the north. The freeway begins to parallel Crabtree Creek. At exit 12, there are two incomplete exits: Yonkers Road is served by I-440 East, while Brentwood Road and Noblin Road are served by I-440 West. A partial cloverleaf interchange at exit 13 serves New Bern Avenue along with US 64 Business East. US 64 Business is concurrent with I-440 until exit 14. Before reaching I-87/US 64/US 264 at exit 14, the freeway turns directly south; the freeway, along with several exit ramps, crosses over Crabtree Creek and a railroad owned by the Carolina Coastal Railway. US 64 continues concurrently with I-440 to the south. After an interchange with Poole Road, the interstate turns to the west along the southern side of Walnut Creek Park. Exit 16 is used to serve I-40 East. I-440 East continues to the west another 0.7 miles before terminating at I-40 West. US 64 continues concurrently with I-40.

The Raleigh "Belt Line" was planned during the early 1950s as a belt road around the city. By 1953, funds had been set aside for the portion between New Bern Ave. and North Blvd.. In September 1962, the first portion opened to traffic; this was the section from NC Highway 55 in Apex to Western Blvd. in Raleigh. A few weeks another short section opened up to Hillsborough St. just in time for the State Fair. The following January, the portion from Hillsborough St. to Glenwood Avenue opened. At this time, the freeway was signed as US 1 from Apex to Hillsborough St. From there, US 1 followed Hillsborough St. east, toward downtown. The remaining 3.3-mile-long section of the freeway, running from Hillsborough Street north to Glenwood Avenue, remained unsigned. In 1963, the northern section of the Raleigh Beltline was completed, from Glenwood Avenue to North Boulevard where it met up with US 401. US 1 was signed along the freeway from Hillsborough Street to North Boulevard, leaving its former routing through downtown Raleigh as US 1B.

The next year, US 64 was relocated to bypass Cary and connect with the US 1 freeway six miles northeast of Apex. In 1964, a 2-mile-long section of the Beltline opened, extending the freeway all the way to New Bern Avenue. US 64 was rerouted along th

A percussion ensemble is a musical ensemble consisting of only percussion instruments. Although the term can be used to describe any such group, it refers to groups of classically trained percussionists performing classical music. In America, percussion ensembles are most found at conservatories, though some professional groups, such as Nexus and So Percussion exist. Drumlines and groups who meet for drum circles are two other forms of the percussion ensemble. George Antheil's Ballet Mécanique is one of the earliest examples of composition for percussion, written as a film score and exemplifying the ideals of the Italian futurist movement. Antheil called for sixteen synchronized player pianos, as well as airplane engines, alongside more traditional percussion instruments. Another early example, Cuban composer Amadeo Roldán's Ritmicas nos. 5 and 6 of 1930, made use of Cuban percussion instruments and rhythms. But it was Edgard Varèse's Ionisation that "opened the floodgates" and brought the percussion ensemble into the fold of contemporary composition.

Premiered in 1933 under the baton of Nicholas Slonimsky, Ionisation is thematically structured and makes use of 13 performers playing over 30 different instruments, including Latin percussion instruments, cymbals, sirens, a piano and glockenspiel. Other noteworthy pieces were composed during the 1930s and 1940s on the West Coast of America by composers Henry Cowell, John Cage, Lou Harrison, Johanna Beyer; the year 1939 saw the composition of Cage's First Construction and Harrison's Canticle no. 1. Béla Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, written in 1937, was an important piece for the development of percussion composition; the early 1940s resulted in Cage's second and third Constructions, Harrison's Fugue for Percussion, as well as Cage and Harrison's collaboration Double Music. Carlos Chávez's Toccata has remained a standard work. In the post-war period, many new works were composed for percussion ensemble. In 1960, Alberto Ginastera composed the Cantata para América Mágica, for soprano and large percussion ensemble.

Carlos Chávez wrote his second such piece, Tambuco, in 1964. Iannis Xenakis composed two percussion sextets for Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Pléïades, in 1996 wrote Zythos, for trombone and six percussionists, for Christian Lindberg and the Kroumata Ensemble. Karlheinz Stockhausen composed a children's theatre piece for percussion sextet titled Musik im Bauch in 1975 for Les Percussions de Strasbourg, in 2004 wrote a percussion trio titled Mittwoch Formel; the British composer and percussionist James Wood has contributed several works to the repertoire, including Stoicheia, requiring over 600 instruments played by 16 percussionists, as well as electronics, Village Burial with Fire for percussion quartet, Spirit Festival with Lamentations, for quarter-tone marimba and four percussionists. The existence of percussion ensembles in music schools across the United States and beyond is due to Paul Price, who taught at the University of Illinois from 1949 to 1956 and established the first accredited percussion ensemble during his time there.

His students at that time included Michael Colgrass, unsatisfied with the available percussion ensemble literature, composed for the ensemble and went on to become a Pulitzer-winning composer with Déjà Vu, written for a percussion quartet with orchestra. Since the 1950s, the percussion ensemble has become a permanent part of the academic music world, professional percussion ensembles such as Nexus have furthered the art form through commissions and worldwide performance; the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music holds the Paul Price Percussion Music and Papers, 1961–1982, which consists of percussion sheet music, sound recordings, correspondence documenting Price's career as a percussion musician, conductor of the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble. In addition to Beyer, Cage and Harrison, American composers who have made significant contributions to percussion ensemble literature include: Steve Reich, Howard J. Buss, Christopher Rouse, William Russell, William Kraft, Eric Ewazen. Amadinda Percussion Group Blue Man Group Kroumata Nexus The Percussion Clique, Michael Aldan Bayard Les Percussions de Strasbourg Scrap Arts Music Singapore Wind Symphony's Percussion Ensemble So Percussion Stomp Tambuco Third Coast Percussion Gamelan Noise in music'ote'a Pungmul Rhythm band Samul nori Taiko Thayambaka Art of the States: percussion ensemble works for percussion ensemble by American composers Very early percussion ensemble recordings by John Cage and Lou Harrison – list of the works Dave Sabine's Percussion Sheet Music Library