Reports are emerging of a possible settlement that will allow President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras to resume his elected position, following a coup earlier in the year and intense international efforts to restore him.

A top-level delegation of international Christian leaders has visited Washington DC to advocate for the cessation of widespread human rights violations in Honduras.

Honduras must immediately halt their "repressive" response to a week of violent political unrest that left five people reportedly killed, Amnesty International has said.

Mission workers from the United Methodist Church have called on US President Obama "to take whatever diplomatic and economic steps are necessary" to restore the deposed Honduran President.

People working with the Catholic aid agency Cafod, have said that the forced removal of the President of Honduras is a backwards step, but his restitution is not the solution.

An earthquake of 7.1 on the Richter scale struck Honduras at midnight two days ago. The epicentre of the two-minute quake was the Caribbean coast just north of Bay Islands. Suggestions of another quake is adding to tensions.

Catholic aid agencies CAFOD in the UK and Development & Peace in Canada are calling on multi-million pound mining giant Goldcorp to ensure their San Martin mine in Honduras does not leave a toxic legacy when it closes at the end of 2009.

Development organisations are distributing emergency food aid, bottled water and hygiene kits to thousands of Honduran families who have been forced to flee their homes after nearly three weeks of torrential rain.

Church and development organisations working in hurricane-hit Nicaragua and Honduras are urging people not to forget the long- and short-term victims of the region's 'hidden disaster', the profile of which is being dwarfed by other world events in the media.

Hurricane Felix, which struck Nicaragua on Tuesday 5 September 2007, has destroyed 9,000 homes, according to the Nicaraguan government. 38 people are confirmed dead, with another 80 missing. Honduras and Guatemala have also been hit.