Brussels vs Kosovo

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The City of Brussels (French: Ville de Bruxelles [vil də bʁysɛl] or alternatively Bruxelles-Ville [bʁysɛl vil]; Dutch: Stad Brussel [stɑd ˈbrʏsəl] or Brussel-Stad) is the largest municipality and historic centre of the Brussels-Capital Region, and the capital of Belgium. Besides the strict centre, in addition, it covers the immediate northern outskirts where it borders municipalities in Flanders. It is the administrative center of the European Union, thus often dubbed, along with the area, the EU's capital city. The City of Brussels is a municipality composed of the central historic city and certain additional regions within the greater Brussels-Capital Region, namely Haren, Laeken and Neder-Over-Heembeek to the north, as well as Avenue Louise/Louizalaan and the Bois de la Cambre/Ter Kamerenbos park to the south.

As of 1 January 2017, the City of Brussels had a whole population of 176,545. The entire area is 32.61 km2 (12.59 sq mi) which gives a population density of 5,475 inhabitants per square kilometre (14,180/sq mi). As of 2007, there were approximately 50,000 registered non-Belgians in the City of Brussels. In common with all of Brussels' municipalities, it's legally bilingual (French--Dutch).

Source: Wikipedia

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Kosovo (; Albanian: Kosova or Kosovë, pronounced [kɔˈsɔva] or [kɔˈsɔvə]; Serbian Cyrillic: Косово, pronounced [kôsoʋo]), officially the Republic of Kosovo (Albanian: Republika e Kosovës; Serbian: Република Косово / Republika Kosovo), is a partially-recognised state and disputed territory in Southeastern Europe. On 17 February 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia. It has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 98 UN member states. Geographically defined in an area of 10,887 km2 (4,203 sq mi), Kosovo is landlocked in the center of the Balkans and bordered by the uncontested territory of Serbia to the north and east, North Macedonia to the southeast, Albania to the southwest and Montenegro to the west. It possesses remarkable varied and diverse landscapes for its size by climate along with geology and hydrology. Most of central Kosovo is dominated by the vast plains and fields of Metohija and Kosovo. The rugged Prokletije and Šar Mountains rise in the southwest and southeast, respectively. Archaeological research has shown that the earliest known settlements in the territory of present-day Kosovo were linked to the Neolithic Starčevo culture and the material culture groupins which succeeded it. The Bronze Age was marked by the arrival of Indo-European tribes and the appearance of tumuli, a typical feature of Indo-European material culture, in existing and new sites. In classical antiquity, the central tribe which emerged in the territory of Kosovo was that of the Dardani who formed an independent polity known as the Kingdom of Dardania in the 4th century BCE. Dardania was annexed by the Roman Empire by the 1st century BCE and was later part of the provinces of Praevalitana and Dardania. Kosovo remained part of the eastern Roman Empire for over a thousand years. Byzantine administration was eroded by Slavic invasions beginning in the 6th-7th century AD. In the centuries thereafter control of the area alternated between the Byzantines and the First Bulgarian Empire.

By the 13th century, Kosovo became part of medieval Serbia. The Battle of Kosovo of 1389 is considered to be one of the defining moments in Serbian medieval history. The region was the core of the Serbian medieval state, which has also been the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the 14th century, when its status was upgraded to a patriarchate. The fall of the Serbian Empire in the late 14th century saw a quick succession of regional rulers until the 15th century when it became part of the Ottoman Empire until the early 20th century. In the late 19th century, it was the centre of the Albanian National Awakening. Following their defeat in the Balkan Wars, the Ottomans ceded Kosovo to Serbia and Montenegro. Both countries joined Yugoslavia after World War I, and following a period of Yugoslav unitarianism in the Kingdom, the post-World War II Yugoslav constitution established the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within the Yugoslav constituent republic of Serbia. Tensions between Kosovo's Albanian and Serb communities simmered through the 20th century and occasionally erupted into major violence, culminating in the Kosovo War of 1998 and 1999, which resulted in the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army, the establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo and the declaration of independence in 2008. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state, although with the 2013 Brussels Agreement, it has accepted its state institutions. While Serbia recognises administration of the territory by Kosovo's elected government, it continues to claim it as the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija.Kosovo has an upper-middle-income economy. It has experienced solid economic growth over the last decade by international financial institutions, and growth every year since the onset of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Kosovo is a member of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and has applied for membership of Interpol and for observer status in the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation.

Source: Wikipedia