EU chief Ursula von der Leyen Wednesday vowed Russia would not succeed in sowing "division and anxiety" in the bloc, at the start of summit talks in Denmark rattled by a spate of mysterious drone flights.

"It's a pattern, and this pattern is coming from Russia," von der Leyen told reporters as the defence talks kicked off in Copenhagen. "Russia tries to test us, but Russia also tries to sow division and anxiety in our societies. We will not let this happen".

Rescuers used backhoes and sniffer dogs to look for survivors in collapsed houses and other damaged buildings in the central Philippines Wednesday, a day after an earthquake killed at least 69 people.

The death toll was expected to rise from the magnitude-6.9 earthquake that hit at about 10 p.m. Tuesday and trapped an unspecified number of residents in the hard-hit city of Bogo and outlying rural towns in Cebu province.

Plunged into a government shutdown, the U.S. is confronting a fresh cycle of uncertainty after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to keep government programs and services running by Wednesday's deadline.

Roughly 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed, some potentially fired by the Trump administration. Many offices will be shuttered, perhaps permanently, as Trump vows to "do things that are irreversible, that are bad" as retribution. His deportation agenda is expected to run full speed ahead, while education, environmental and other services sputter. The economic fallout is expected to ripple nationwide.

Denmark's support for Ukraine, its lack of anti-drone defenses and this week's EU summit in Copenhagen could all explain the unidentified drone sightings over Danish airspace that have been widely blamed on Russia.

The United States is sending anti-drone defenses to Denmark as it hosts an EU summit this week, Copenhagen's defense ministry said Tuesday, after drones over the Nordic country closed several airports.

Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden have also all sent anti-drone technology ahead of the summit to Denmark, which fears Russian surveillance of its military sites.

Iran said Tuesday that 120 nationals being deported from the United States under President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, will fly home this week.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States faces a "war from within" from crime and immigration, in a darkly authoritarian speech to a rare meeting of the top US military officers.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law to pull Russia out of a European anti-torture convention, Moscow's latest rejection of Western institutions and rights protections amid its offensive on Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday downplayed his country's alleged violation of Ukrainian airspace with drones, saying "no-one" would attack the war-torn nation from Hungary's direction.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called up 135,000 men for routine military service, the country's biggest autumn conscription drive since 2016.