1.   Hundreds of miners from the western valleys were walking over the hill to the stricken village.

2.   Aftershocks shook what was left standing, forcing tens of thousands to camp in the streets of stricken villages.

3.   As the summer sun shone for a third straight day, long lines of soldiers in green or red shirts marched into stricken villages with shovels in hand.

4.   But the rugged terrain and overcast skies have made helicopter flights to the badly stricken villages too risky.

5.   By Sunday, thousands of volunteers from unaffected areas had poured into the stricken villages and towns in a convoy of trucks, pickups and buses to help.

6.   From there, it is still a five-hour drive over rough terrain to the stricken villages.

7.   His figure was based on surveys of Iranian aid workers who have reached stricken villages in northeastern Iran.

8.   Interior Minister Ali Mohamed Besharti said an exact death toll might never be determined because not all the stricken villages were reporting their casualties.

9.   Iran appealed for international aid for the stricken villages and towns, many of them cut off by landslides triggered by the quake.

10.   It planned to send more experts, dogs and relief material to the stricken villages soon.