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.

The United Nations is warning that more than half a million people are in need of emergency assistance after storms Fay, Gustav and Hanna battered the island of Haiti. Church and development groups are responding with urgent aid.

Chinese churches and Christian agencies, as well as the government and army, have begun responding to the recent earthquake. The quake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, has devastated a region west of the provincial capital Chengdu.

Burmese cyclone survivors face a massive crisis unless they are urgently delivered aid, leading aid agencies have warned - while Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Burma's generals to ease restrictions on outside assistance.

Burma's military regime is distributing international aid today. But it is covering the boxes with the names of top generals in an effort to turn the relief effort for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

Teams from Disasters Emergency Committee member agencies, along with flights of emergency relief items, are now reaching those affected by Cyclone Nargis. DEC is calling for urgent donations to the DEC Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Appeal.

As the death toll from the Burma cyclone continues to rise dramatically, possibly to around 100,000, the Methodist Church and the Methodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF) in Britain have launched an emergency appeal for funds.

Global church development agencies, including the UK-based Christian Aid, are calling on the international community and the Burmese government to use all available means to help those affected by cyclone Nargis.

Evacuations from coastal areas have begun in earnest, as a ‘potentially catastrophic’ hurricane threatens Central America. Church and development agencies have been working with local emergency committees to help communities create shelters.