Andorra the Principality of Andorra called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, is a sovereign landlocked microstate on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees, bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south. Believed to have been created by Charlemagne, Andorra was ruled by the count of Urgell until 988, when it was transferred to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Urgell; the present principality was formed by a charter in 1278. It is known as a principality as it is a diarchy headed by two princes: the Catholic bishop of Urgell in Catalonia and the president of the French Republic. Andorra is the sixth-smallest nation in Europe, having an area of 468 square kilometres and a population of 77,006; the Andorran people are a Romance ethnic group of Catalan descent. Andorra is the 16th-smallest country in the 11th-smallest by population, its capital, Andorra la Vella, is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres above sea level. The official language is Catalan, but Spanish and French are commonly spoken.

Tourism in Andorra sees an estimated 10.2 million visitors annually. Andorra is not a member of the European Union, it has been a member of the United Nations since 1993. In 2013, Andorra had the highest life expectancy in the world at 81 years, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study; the origin of the word Andorra is unknown. The oldest derivation of the word Andorra is from the Greek historian Polybius who describes the Andosins, an Iberian Pre-Roman tribe, as located in the valleys of Andorra and facing the Carthaginian army in its passage through the Pyrenees during the Punic Wars; the word Andosini or Andosins may derive from the Basque handia whose meaning is "big" or "giant". The Andorran toponymy shows evidence of Basque language in the area. Another theory suggests that the word Andorra may derive from the old word Anorra that contains the Basque word ur. Another theory suggests that Andorra may derive from Arabic al-durra, meaning "the forest"; when the Arabs and Moors conquered the Iberian Peninsula, the valleys of the High Pyrenees were covered by large tracts of forest, most of the regions that were not administered by Muslims, because of the geographical difficulty, presented, received this designation.

Other theories suggest that the term derives from the Navarro-Aragonese andurrial, which means "land covered with bushes" or "scrubland". The folk etymology holds that Charlemagne had named the region as a reference to the Biblical Canaanite valley of Endor or Andor, a name bestowed by his heir and son Louis le Debonnaire after defeating the Moors in the "wild valleys of Hell". La Balma de la Margineda, found by archaeologists at Sant Julia de Loria, was settled in 9,500 BC as a passing place between the two sides of the Pyrenees; the seasonal camp was located for hunting and fishing by the groups of hunter-gatherers from Ariege and Segre. During the Neolithic Age, a group of people moved to the Valley of Madriu as a permanent camp in 6640 BC; the population of the valley grew cereals, raised domestic livestock, developed a commercial trade with people from the Segre and Occitania. Other archaeological deposits include the Tombs of Segudet and Feixa del Moro both dated in 4900–4300 BC as an example of the Urn culture in Andorra.

The model of small settlements began to evolve to a complex urbanism during the Bronze Age. Metallurgical items of iron, ancient coins, relicaries can be found in the ancient sanctuaries scattered around the country; the sanctuary of Roc de les Bruixes is the most important archeological complex of this age in Andorra, located in the parish of Canillo, about the rituals of funerals, ancient scripture and engraved stone murals. The inhabitants of the valleys were traditionally associated with the Iberians and located in Andorra as the Iberian tribe Andosins or Andosini during the 7th and 2nd centuries BC. Influenced by Aquitanias and Iberian languages, the locals developed some current toponyms. Early writings and documents relating to this group of people goes back to the second century BC by the Greek writer Polybius in his Histories during the Punic Wars; some of the most significant remains of this era are the Castle of the Roc d'Enclar, l'Anxiu in Les Escaldes and Roc de L'Oral in Encamp.

The presence of Roman influence is recorded from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. The places found with more Roman presence are in Camp Vermell in Sant Julia de Loria, in some places in Encamp, as well as in the Roc d'Enclar. People continued trading with wine and cereals, with the Roman cities of Urgellet and all across Segre through the Via Romana Strata Ceretana. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Andorra came under the influence of the Visigoths, not remotely from the Kingdom of Toledo, but locally from the Diocese of Urgell; the Visigoths remained in the valleys for 200 years. When the Muslim Empire and its conquest of most of the Iberian Peninsula replaced the ruling Visigoths, Andorra was sheltered from these invaders by the Franks. Tradition holds that Charles the Great granted a charter to the A

Nathan are a Canadian alternative country band based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The band won several awards, including a 2008 Juno Award. Nathan was formed in 2001. Band members were singer/songwriter Keri McTighe and bassist Devin Latimer, along with Shelley Marshal and Damon Mitchell. After their debut independent album Stranger won a Prairie Music Award for Outstanding Independent Album, the band signed to Nettwerk Records. In 2004 they released their second album, Jimson Weed, which won two Western Canada Music Awards, two Canadian Folk Music Awards and was nominated for the Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year at the 2005 Juno Awards. In 2007, they released their third album, Key Principles, which won the award for Outstanding Roots album at the Western Canadian Music Awards and for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year at the 2008 Juno Awards. Keri Latimer has written and performed as a solo artist, including contributions to the 2008 film soundtrack Frozen River and the 2010 Great Canadian Song Quest.

In 2015 she and husband Devin Latimer have formed the band Leaf Rapids. 2001: Stranger 2004: Jimson Weed 2006: Casserole EP 2007: Key Principles Nathan Official website Nathan at Myspace

Angel C. Alcala is a Filipino biologist, named a National Scientist of the Philippines in 2014. Alcala is known for his fieldwork to build sanctuaries and to promote biodiversity in the aquatic ecosystems of the Philippines, he is Chairman of the Board of Advisers at the Angelo King Center for Research and Environmental Management located in Silliman University. Responsible for publishing more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and books, his biological contributions to the environment and ecosystems have made him a renowned hero for natural sciences in the Philippines. Alcala was born on March 1929 in the municipality of Cauayan, Negros Occidental, he was raised by a moderately low-income family in the small coastal town of Philippines. Alcala worked alongside with his father who worked as a fisherman at the nearby agricultural fish ponds. Due to his family's financial struggles, they depended on the ocean for its resources either in providing food or items to sell. In 1951, Angel Alcala earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Silliman University.

He declined acceptance to the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in order to assist his family. During that time, he assisted in biological fieldwork, for example for Sidney Dillon Ripley and Dioscoro Rabor in 1953 when they collected the only known specimen of the Negros fruit dove. Alcala attended Stanford University to complete his master's degree after 9 years. By 1966, he earned his Ph. D. in the same field and an honor doctorate from both the Xavier University and the University of Southeastern Philippines. Alcala became a professor at Silliman University where he served as president for two consecutive years, he served as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources from 1992 to 1995 and chairman of the Commission on Higher Education from 1995 to 1999. He served as consultant on marine and aquatic projects under the United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, World Bank Global Environment Facility, the Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute.

Angel Alcala is accredited with many research accomplishments and improvements regarding environmental management, marine conservation, discovery of new species. One of Alcala's works consisted of restoring or preserving areas with predominant wild, large predatory fish populations near a small marine sanctuary at Apo Island in the Philippines, his goal was to sustain hospitable conditions in this sanctuary throughout the duration of his research. This sanctuary, called the Sumilon Marine Reserve, began as just an uninhabited area under 100 kilometers away from Apo Island. Another research element Alcala incorporated in his study is associating the species’ survival rate of large, predatory fish with available ocean territories around reefs and fisheries; this helped place an effort to set boundaries to distinguish marine sanctuaries and fishing areas. Alcala's conservation efforts accompanied with his research in oceanic and land management helped stabilize retention of once-endangered species in the Sumilon Island and Apo Island marine reserves.

His studies correlated the efforts of protective environmental practices with the effects of either continuing or ceasing those regulations. Incidents of fishing are common consequences when ocean space and resources are available and not properly managed; these studies were conducted near coral reefs of Sumilon Island located in the central Philippines. Alcala concluded how maximizing conservation and environmental efforts near these coral reefs reduced fishing and stabilized struggling fish species that faced the increased loss of habitat. Angel Alcala experimented with his teams to conserve other marine resources. In their "no-take" experiment, Alcala's team tested the mobility of fish species when humans were forbidden from fishing in these areas. By doing so, they discovered that the species abundance in the area declined while pushing the boundaries of their residence to further reaches; these findings provide evidence that conservation of these fishes and coral reefs not only slows the species' decline in numbers, but the growth in habitat for all marine life.

Alcala has worked to protect the lives of giant clams in the Philippines. He worked alongside Dr. Edgardo Gomez to assess the organisms' status in 1983. After thorough evaluation of Bolinao waters, they learned. Gomez and Alcala retrieved young giant clams from the Solomon Islands to breed back in Bolinao. After their work, the giant clam population has increased to ensure that the ecosystem is stable. On October 25, 2014, he visited the Semirara coast. Along with his many other accomplishments, Angel Alcala's work has led to the discovery of 50 species of reptiles and amphibians. In other words, more than 10 percent of all reptiles and amphibians in the Philippines are known today because of Alcala's work; this fieldwork began while he was still a student and built a stronger foundation to jumpstart conservation programs within the Philippines. In 1959, Angel Alcala earned the Fulbright-Smith Mundt master's fellowship in Stanford University's biology department. In 1963, Alcala was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences in the category for Organismal Biology & Ecology.

In 1992, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation awarded Alcala the Ramon Magsaysay Award and acknowledged him for pioneering scientific leadership in restoring and conserving the coral reefs of the Philippines. In 1994, he received the Field Museum Founders' Council Award of Merit for his contributions to environmental bi