[Future updates will go here for the time being]

"I saw them releasing four infants, less than one year old, and two women. They were driven in a car of Ruslan Aushev," Reuters Television producer, Olga Petrova, said referring to the head of North Ossetia's neighbor Ingushetia. North Ossetian spokesman Lev Dzugayev told reporters three women were released.

UPDATE:

In Grozny, Chechnya:

Grozny is hosting protest rallies against the hostage taking in a secondary school in Beslan in North Ossetia (a republic in the North Caucasus).

A RIA Novosti correspondent reports that the rally took place on the territory of the university. Some 500 students took part in it. They carried posters that read "Hands off children" and "People of Ossetia, we are with you." The speakers emotionally expressed their sympathy with children taken hostage, their parents and relations.

A resolution against all kinds of terrorism was adopted at the rally.

Details about the hostages are coming out slowly. It is known now that three of the hostages inside the building are Turkish:

Three Turks, two children and their mother, are among hundreds of hostages seized at a Russian school close to Chechnya, the children's father told the CNN Turk news channel on Thursday. Seyfi Dogan said in an interview by telephone from the scene that his family was caught up in the incident when his Russian-born wife and their one-year-old baby accompanied their nine-year-old daughter to the school.

Turkey was quick to condemn the act of terrorism:

"We forcefully condemn this form of terrorist action, which can in no way be justified and which harms the life of innocent people and even children," said a written statement issued by the foreign ministry. "This is an unacceptable act," it said.

This comes right after the news that three Turkish hostages were murdered in Iraq.

UPDATE:

According to several sources, 26 women and children have been freed.

From Yahoo:

Armed hostage-takers freed 26 women and children from a Russian school here where hundreds of others were held captive, news agencies said quoting local authorities. The crisis unit set up on the scene said that the liberation, the first major release of hostages, was made possible through the mediation efforts of former Ingush president Ruslan Aushev.

UPDATE:

They are now saying 31 have been released.

UPDATE:

Radio Free Europe has another analysis on who might be behind this.
Also, from Interfax:

Most of the 26 hostages freed in the North Ossetian town of Beslan are at a local hospital now.
"We have admitted ten children and their mothers. All of them will be examined and the appropriate medical attention will be given to them," the hospital's chief doctor told Interfax.

UPDATE:

Some quotes from Dr. Roshal, who has been in contact with the terrorists:

"I am in uninterrupted talks with one Shoikhu-I am not sure I've got the name right. The man has introduced himself as [terrorist] press attache. They would not give food, water or medicines to the kids and adults in the school. The man says he is a highlander. I told him highlanders never behaved that way."

"The release of an initial 26 hostages is certainly a victory-but it's a mere drop in the ocean. The very fact of someone set free is a big achievement, but a huge job is ahead yet."

"If the matter has a tragic outcome, it will mean war-a warfare in this explosive area. We must prevent war between fraternal peoples at all cost. I am appealing to the wisdom of the Ossetian, Ingush and Chechen peoples to ward off the looming war danger. A war will take thousands of lives, and we must see it.,"