People swept dirt from the pews and wiped clean the mud-covered, ornate tile floors of a church. The sound of hammers hitting nails and the buzzing of chain saws reverberated in the streets. Debris was piled on corners and set ablaze.

Japan is preparing to send as many as 1,000 troops to the storm-ravaged Philippines, and naval vessels and aircraft in what could be Tokyo's biggest postwar military deployment.

International effort picked up pace yesterday, with helicopters buzzing back and forth between Tacloban and the USS George Washington's carrier group, delivering crates of food.

Scores of unidentified bodies were interred together in a hillside cemetery without any ritual - the first mass burial in this city shattered by last week's Typhoon Haiyan.

Close your eyes and hold your breath, and you could imagine you are in a normal sports stadium. You hear a ball bouncing and the children's cheers echoing under the cavernous dome.

The rusting white truck began its grim journey shortly after 10.30am under the growing heat of a tropical sun.

Relief operations in the typhoon-devastated Tacloban region picked up pace yesterday.

NZ will send an air force Hercules to help in the storm-hit Philippines, but Prime Minister John Key's official visit to Manila next week has been postponed.

Walking with just one broken rubber flip-flop, Marcel Stutz, a farmer, led his young children and wife past putrefying corpses down an avenue that would take them to the airport and to safety.

Food, water and medical aid has been sent to the Philippines - but few in the worst-hit areas are receiving any help.

From a music marathon to food and garage sales, local Filipino community groups are rallying to raise funds for victims affected by Typhoon Haiyan.

A relief worker on the ground in the Philippines has described nightmarish scenes, but says the Filipino people are being resilient through the crisis.

The United Nations was "expecting the worst'' over the final body count from Typhoon Haiyan, which ripped through the Philippines killing tens of thousands.

June and Ben McOmish received the phone call thousands of anxious parents across the world would have wanted to hear yesterday.

While Typhoon Haiyan appears to be the deadliest natural disaster on record to hit the Philippines, the country is no stranger to major storms.

Governments and agencies are mounting a major relief effort to help victims of the Philippines typhoon.

One of the most intense typhoons ever recorded has torn into the Philippines, triggering flash floods and ripping down buildings as millions of people huddle indoors.

Eileen Rose Carabana and her mother were in their mountain village house when the 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the central Philippine island of Bohol. Moments later, she felt an unmistakable intense pain in her abdomen - she was about to go into labour

The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck the central Philippine island of Bohol has topped 100 with only three people pulled alive from rubble.

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake has struck in the central Philippines, killing at least four people and collapsing and damaging buildings, radio reports and officials said.

A tropical storm barrelling toward the northern Philippines on Friday intensified into a typhoon with destructive winds and flooding rains threatening farmlands and populated areas, including the capital Manila.