Tegucigalpa, Honduras  - Narcotics officers in Honduras seized a ship loaded with 2 tons of cocaine on the Central American country's largest lagoon.

Seven men were arrested Monday when a navy speed boat stopped the vessel on the Caratasca Lagoon in north-eastern Honduras, 500 kilometres north-east of the capital, Tegucigalpa, the Honduran Navy said.

Honduran authorities estimated that drug traffickers transport about 60 tons of cocaine every year by sea and plane through the remote jungles on the border with Nicaragua.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - Weeks of rain have caused the deaths of nearly 50 people and left more than 20 missing in Honduras and killed dozens more in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, officials said.

Most of the victims were buried in landslides and drowned in rivers that overflowed their banks, authorities said Sunday.

In Honduras, 100,000 people were affected by flooding while the emergency services agency estimated damage to highways, bridges, crops and houses at 150 million dollars.

Tegucigalpa  - The number of dead in Honduras as a result of recent heavy rain and subsequent flooding rose to 23, the authorities said late Wednesday.

Most of the dead were believed to have drowned in the currents of overflowing rivers, the country's civil protection authorities said.

In Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, seven people died in mudslides in the hills, where many thousands of poor live in improvised homes.

Honduras has been suffering heavy rain for two weeks, and much of its territory is flooded. The main rivers have flowed over their banks.

Tegucigalpa - Honduran trade union leader Altagracia Fuentes and two companions were murdered Thursday in the north of the Caribbean country, according to police reports.