--Happy Birthday KOSOVO--

Kosovo (Albanian: Kosova, Kosovë; Serbian: Косово or Косово и Метохија, Kosovo or Kosovo i Metohija) is a disputed region in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo (Albanian: Republika e Kosovës), which claims all the territory of Yugoslavia’s 1974–1990 Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo of SR Serbia.

~

The modern Republic of Serbia does not recognise the secession of the province and considers Kosovo a United Nations-governed entity within its sovereign territory, the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Косово и Метохија, Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo i Metohija) re-created by the Serbian constitutional reforms of the Slobodan Milošević government.[6]

~
Landlocked Kosovo is bordered by Central Serbia to the north and east, the Republic of Macedonia to the south, Albania to the west, and Montenegro to the northwest. The largest city and the capital of Kosovo is Pristina (alternatively spelled Prishtina or Priština), while other cities include Peć (Peja), Prizren, and Mitrovica (Kosovska Mitrovica).

~
Kosovo was a part of the lands of Thraco-Illyrian tribes, then of the Roman, Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian, and Ottoman empires.

~

In the 20th century it shared between Kingdom of Montenegro and Kingdom of Serbia, and their successor state, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After the Kosovo War and 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia the territory came under the interim administration of the United Nations (UNMIK). In February 2008, the Assembly of Kosovo declared Kosovo's independence as the Republic of Kosovo.

~

As of 16 January 2009, its independence is recognised by 55 UN member states and the Republic of China (Taiwan). On October 8, 2008, the majority of the UN states backed a Serbian judicial initiative on Kosovo aimed at determining whether the secession was legal.

~

~

~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo