Putin arrives in region next to conflict

Moscow: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz on Saturday to discuss the influx of refugees from the conflict in the adjacent Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia, news agencies said.

Putin flew from Beijing, where he attended the opening of the Olympic Games, to North Ossetia in Russia, to where tens of thousands of refuges are fleeing from across the border after two days of fighting between Georgian troops, separatists and Russian forces.