Kosovo : What Everyone Needs to Know (R)On February 17, 2008, Kosovo declared its independence, becoming the seventh state to emerge from the break up of the former Yugoslavia. A tiny country of just two million people, 90% of whom are ethnic Albanians, Kosovo is central geographically, historically, and politically to the future of the Western Balkans and, in turn, its potential future within the European Union. But the fate of both Kosovo, condemned by Serbian leaders as a "fake state"