Spain (Spanish: España, IPA: [es'paɲa]) is a country in southern Europe, with a native language of Spanish. The country consists of Peninsular Spain which is located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, two archipelagos, one in each sea, and two autonomous cities in North Africa. The mainland area of Spain is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the southern and eastern areas, the Cantabric Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Spain is organised as a parliamentary democracy and is a constitutional monarchy. Spain has been a member of the European Union since 1986 and is a developed country, with the ninth largest economy in the world and fifth largest in the EU. Spain is the largest of three sovereign states that make up the Iberian Peninsula – the others being Portugal and Andorra; with an area of 504,030 km², it is the second largest country in Western Europe (behind France). Spain flourished under the Roman empire Hispania, thus becoming one of the Empire's most important regions at the time. During the times of the Middle Ages, Spain was under Germanic rule, only later to become under ruling of the Islamic caliphate. Spain went to war against the French Republic in 1793 after they had killed their king, Louis XVI, and, although defeated in the end, Spain made peace with France in 1795. Show new selected content Madrid Barajas International Airport is an international airport, located north-east of Madrid's city centre. Originally opened in 1928, the airport has become on the busiest and most important airports in Europe; with more than 45 million people passing through in 2006. The airport is ranked as the world's thirteenth, and Europe's fifth busiest airport in the world. Iberia Airlines accounts for 60% of the airport's traffic. Terminal four was designed by Richard Rogers, and became a part of the airport on February 5, 2006; it has since become on of the largest airports in the world, covering an area of 760,000 square feet. The terminal won its designers awards for the construction, including the Structural Awards and the Stirling Prize. One the morning of 30 December 2006 an explosion occurred in the carpark building module D, which is attached to terminal 4. The incident was first recorded at 08:34 (GMT) by employee Samantha Graham. Prior to this, a bomb threat was received, so police had been able to evacuate part of the airport. José Ignacio de Aldecoa (July 24, 1925–November 15, 1969) was a Spanish author. Aldecoa was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz on 24 July 1925, the first child of Simón de Aldecoa and Carmen Isasi. He had a sister called María Teresa, born in 1927. Ignacio's father was a middle class artisan who ran a family business in industrial decoration and restoration inherited from his father, Laureano de Aldecoa. The young Aldecoa was affectionately known as Iñaki in the home and enjoyed a happy and lively childhood marred only by his experience of school. Aldecoa studied in the Arts Faculty at the University of Madrid. He lived later in the United States of America. His first published works were collections of poetry, published in 1947 and 1949. El fulgor y la sangre was his first novel, published in 1954. It failed to win the important Premio Planeta by just one vote. El fulgor forms part of a projected trilogy: the first part, El fulgor deals with the Civil Guard; the second (Con el viento solano, 1956), deals with to some extent with gypsies, traditional enemies, not to say victims, of the Guards; the third part, Los pozos, never appeared but apparently dealt with bullfighters. The link between the three is that in the first part a guard is murdered by a gypsy; the flight to Madrid and eventual surrender of the killer (Sebástian Vázquez) are related in part two; Vázquez is a friend of the bullfighters and something of an aficionado of the sport - this may have been what leads to the final part. | “ | Yesterday, the president met with a group he calls the coalition of the willing. Or, as the rest of the world calls them, Britain and Spain. | ” | — Jon Stewart Purge server cache |
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