Toll From Chechen Homicide Bombing Reaches 57  Published
December 28, 2002  | Associated Press  The homicide bombers who
set off twin blasts that leveled Chechnya's government
headquarters were allowed through several security cordons
around the building because they were disguised as Russian
servicemen, officials said Saturday, as the death toll rose to
57.  The pair of trucks drove into the heavily guarded compound
and exploded just after lunch Friday. The blasts, which had a
combined force equivalent to a half-ton of TNT, wrecked the main
building, blowing away doors, windows and interior walls and
leaving behind a concrete shell. The front half of a second
building collapsed.  Rescuers combed through the rubble in a
desperate search for survivors, but nobody was pulled out alive
on Saturday. At least 57 people were confirmed dead and 121
wounded, said Yuri Kolodkin, a duty officer at the Emergency
Situations Ministry in southern Russia. He said 61 people
remained hospitalized, and more than half of them w