A Russian news agency reports that a bus crash in a breakaway Georgian region has killed at least 8 and left 16 hurt. ITAR Tass said that the bus with 24 passengers aboard tumbled down a steep ravine in South Ossetia, a Moscow-backed separatist region. The agency quoted emergency officials as saying that the bus traversed the high-altitude Transcaucasian Highway that links southern Russia with Georgia. South Ossetia proclaimed independence following the brief Russian-Georgian war in August 2008, AP reported. Moscow and three other countries recognize the region as independent. -- SPA
