South Ossetia refugee buses arrive in Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - About 140 buses carrying refugees from Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia arrived in the adjacent Russian region of North Ossetia on Friday, Interfax news agency reported.

"In Northern Ossetia, 140 buses have arrived with refugees from South Ossetia on Friday evening," Interfax quoted a local government spokesman as saying.

The official said he expected many more refugees to arrive on Saturday.

North Ossetia shares the same language and cultural traditions as South Ossetia. After the break-up of the Soviet Union it became a region of newly independent Russia, while South Ossetia formally became part of Georgia. It declared independence from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.

(Reporting by Conor Sweeney; Editing by Janet Lawrence)