CNN News:伊朗承认击落乌克兰客机 击怒国内民众引发抗议
A quote starts off today's show. "This is not an ordinary case and all of the world is looking at us."
Those are the words of the president of Iran. He was talking about the crash of a passenger plane last Wednesday, shortly after it took off from an airport in the Iranian capital on its way to Ukraine.
At first, Iran said a technical problem was the reason why the plane went down, but the United States and other countries said Iran was responsible.
And after three days of denying it had any involvement, the Iranian government admitted that its military shot down the plane by mistake.
Since then, several arrests have been made. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said those responsible would be punished. And protests swelled up in the Iranian capital, with demonstrators chanting death to the dictator and asking for Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to step down.
Many of the protesters are angry because it took several days for the government to admit it was responsible. Dozens of them were arrested in the demonstrations, which Iran's government called illegal rallies.
Iranian President Rouhani says his government is accountable, and that an event like the plane's destruction wouldn't happen again.
All 176 people aboard the Ukraine International Airlines flight were killed. It was shot down shortly after Iran launched missile strikes on Iraqi military bases where American troops were staying. That came after the U.S. killed a controversial Iranian general who was in Iraq.
Now, Iran's government has internal challenges to deal with as it deals with international ones involving the U.S. and other countries.