Rescuers battled rain, mud and floodwaters today to search for more than 100 people believed buried under tons of earth and debris and feared dead after landslides and huge waves devastated eastern Philippine villages, officials said.

Marine Expeditionary Forces are seen as the “proud hammer” and a “major war fighting element” of the US Marine Corps.

US diplomats have flown to an island in the South China Sea where a navy spy plane landed after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet.