BBC News with Sue Montgomery

President Porfirio Lobo of Honduras has suspended the officials in charge of the national prison system after a fire at a jail killed more than 300

inmates

. Mr Lobo said he was determined to ensure a full investigation into the cause of the disaster and find out who was responsible. He expressed his sympathy for the families of those who'd died.

"We deeply regret what has happened, and I would like to express my solidarity with the families of our compatriots who lost their lives in the Comayagua prison."

Firefighters said many prisoners were burned alive or

asphyxiated

in their cells because the keys could not be found.

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed that he'll run for a second five-year term in elections in April. He was speaking on national television. Mr Sarkozy is currently well behind his main rival, the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, in the opinion polls. Hugh Schofield reports.

President Sarkozy told television viewers that he saw it as his duty to run for a second term. The captain of a ship did not desert the

helm

in troubled waters. He said that in the last five years many reforms had been carried through, but there was still much work to do. "I have plenty of ideas, plenty of things to say to the French," he said. Nicolas Sarkozy

lags far behind

the Socialist Francois Hollande in the polls, but he's a