10.45 a.m. (0500 GMT)

Italy's Foreign Ministry says four Italians are believed to be among those killed in the earthquake in Nepal over the weekend that killed more than 4,400 people.

The ministry says that based on information from their travel companions they were killed in the Langtang area, but noted that the area is still hard to access.

The ministry also said its crisis unit had not been able to reach about 40 Italian citizens believed to have been in the area.

__

10.00 a.m. (0415 GMT)

Army troops are loading blue tarpaulin sheets, medical kits and dehydrated food, water bottles, sacks of rice and blankets at a flat area that is being used as a helipad in Gorkha town.

Gorkha district was the epicenter of Saturday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake that has killed more than 4,400 people.

With the weather clearing it seems that for now helicopters will be able to pick up the supplies and relay to smaller villages.

The weather has been erratic over the last two days — there has been some rain and cloud cover making it difficult for helicopters to land in some areas close to the epicenter.

— Katy Daigle, Gorkha, Nepal

__

9.45 a.m. (0400 GMT)

A team of 37 New Zealand urban search-and-rescue experts due to leave Monday night for Kathmandu has been told at the 11th hour not to come.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said in a statement that Nepal's government had informed him they had enough expertise in the country and the team was no longer required.

New Zealand has contributed 1 million New Zealand dollars ($761,000) to the relief effort following Saturday's earthquake that killed more than 4,400 people.

— Nick Perry, Wellington, New Zealand

__

9.30 a.m. (0345 GMT)

Army troops are loading bags of rice and cornmeal into a storage room at the district headquarters in Gorkha, the epicenter of Saturday's massive earthquake.

District official Surya Mohan Adhikari says the supplies will be sent out later in the day to villages that need them most.

He said that in the rural areas 90 percent of the people have been affected "by this calamity. They have lost their homes and livestock. They have no way of getting food."

He says it is very difficult to reach them. They are cut off by landslides on the mountain roads, and the wind and rain is making it difficult for helicopters to land.

Adhikari said they have reports of some 300 casualties, but that number is rising. Nationwide, more than 4,400 people have been killed in the magnitude 7.8 quake.

— Katy Daigle, Gorkha, Nepal

__

9.00 a.m. (0315 GMT)

A Nepal police official says at least 4,352 bodies have so far been recovered after last week's massive earthquake that struck just outside of capital Kathmandu.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Komal Singh Bam says the toll includes 1,176 bodies recovered in Sindhupalchuk district, just northeast of the capital.

He says 8,063 people have been injured in the magnitude 7.8 quake.

Another 18 people were also killed in a quake-triggered avalanche that swept the Everest base camp. In neighboring India 61 people were killed and China's official Xinhua News Agency reported 25 dead in Tibet.

— Binaj Gurubacharya, Kathmandu, Nepal