1.   A pack of mangy dogs snarl from behind the blackened shell of a house, and the stench of a dead farm animal rises from an untended hayfield.

2.   Springing into action, Christopher set about breaking through the blackened shells of the computers to get at their vital organs.

3.   The Honda had been reduced to a blackened shell.

4.   Guerrilla fighters launched a two-hour assault on the presidential palace, a blackened shell they abandoned Thursday.

5.   In Grozny, bands of rebels clung stubbornly to their positions and waged gunbattles in the center near the blackened shell of the presidential palace.

6.   No one has claimed responsibility for the fire, which left the center a blackened shell of charred maps and books.

7.   The ambassador claimed diplomatic immunity for The Octagon, and it was untouched when President Madison returned to the city to find the White House a blackened shell.

8.   The rebels, meanwhile, launched a two-hour assault on the blackened shell of the presidential palace.

9.   The rebels, meanwhile, launched a two-hour assault on the blackened shell of the presidential palace they abandoned Thursday.

10.   The store was reduced to a blackened concrete shell.