this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: all chant anti—government protests all chant the sound anti—government protests in tehran after the iranians authorities finally admit accidentally shooting down the ukrainian passenger debt. —— iranians authorities. 57 canadians died in wednesday's crash. prime minister trudeau demands a full and complete investigation. royals in crisis talks in the wake of harry and meghan's decision to step back from their roles. the queen, prince charles, william and harry are to meet on monday. and we'll find out about the ioo—year—old giant tortoise diego, who's saved his species from extinction.

hello and welcome to bbc world news. after days of denial, iran has admitted it did shoot down a ukrainian passenger plane that crashed near tehran on wednesday. it follows evidence collected by the ukrainian government and western intelligence agencies. protests have broken out in iran since the announcement. many iranians are angry that the government didn't come forward sooner. one of the protests has been taking place at a university which some of the victims attended. the british ambassador to iran was also at those protests, and was detained by iranian authorities for several hours. the uk foreign secretary put out this statement in response.

rana rahimpourfrom the bbc‘s persian service explains more on what has made the protesters so angry. official protesters so angry. after official, they came out, official after official, they came out, they denied the suspicion that iran was behind the attack and downing of the aeroplane, and they are angryfor downing of the aeroplane, and they are angry for several reasons. a, one question they are asking, why was the iranian space open during

that period iran was launching attacks on us forces in iraq? essentially why was that plane allowed to take off and be in the airat all? allowed to take off and be in the air at all? exactly. at the same time, other airlines who were aware of these attacks had stopped flying over iran and iraq. b, why did it ta ke over iran and iraq. b, why did it take so many days for the authorities to finally take responsibility for the attacks? these are several reasons. also they are trying to hold gatherings to hold memorial services for those who have died, and they are being cracked down the a number of celebrities have called people to gather together tomorrow in certain famous squares and tehran and other cities and they have came under pressure and they have cancelled the invitation. ukraine's president vlodomir zelensky says he's had a telephone conversation with his iranian counterpart in which hassan rouhani apologised to all of ukraine. mr zelensky said the two have agreed to work together on the crash investigation.

translation: regarding the conversation with the president of iran, we agreed that he will immediately orderfor iran, we agreed that he will immediately order for the identification of the dead bodies to be completed with the help of ukrainian experts and help prepare for their return to the ukraine as quickly as possible. this should happen soon. we also agreed to start working together to decipher the two box recorders. we've agreed on full legal and technical cooperation, including on the issue of compensation, and we agreed no—one would back out. president trump has tweeted his support for the protesters in iran, saying: here's our diplomatic correspondent, james landale, with more on iran's admission, and the international reaction.

almost from the moment the ukrainian airliner crashed early on wednesday morning, officials in tehran furiously rejected the growing video and intelligence evidence suggesting it had been hit by an iranian missile. then today, an abrupt about—turn. in a flurry of social media postings iran's president spoke of a "disastrous mistake". the foreign minister talked of "human error". the ambassador in london apologised for misleading the media with "wrong findings". a senior military commander explained that iran's air defences had been on high alert after the attack on us bases in iraq and the aircraft was misidentified as an american missile. he said he wished he could die. translation: we are sorry. we share the sorrow with victims' families. we regret the incident. but this was the price we paid for the tensions and us activities in the region. in tehran, people gathered on the streets notjust to mourn some of the 176 dead, but also to voice their anger

at the government, shouting "death to liars". at one protest, the british ambassador was arrested and detained for three hours in what the foreign secretary said was a flagrant breach of international law. ukraine's national security secretary told my colleague jonah fisher how iran simply could no longer deny the evidence. translation: this photo shows us the first part of the plane where a rocket hit. it hit the cockpit from underneath. as canada continued to mourn its 57 dead, the prime minister demanded that iran cooperate with a full and transparent international investigation. iran must take full responsibility. canada will not rest until we get the accountability, justice and closure that the families deserve.

the question now is how much access iran will give to the crash site and data from the wreckage. only then will we know if today's admission of responsibility will be enough to de—escalate the latest confrontation in the middle east. james landale, bbc news. there have also been protests in toronto against the iranian regime. aleem mazbool is there. well, the weather conditions have been terrible and still all day people have been coming to the tribute site here in toronto. just a short while ago, in the last half—an—hour also, there was a small protest here as well with people shouting "down with the islamic republic", but as you heard... a chant has started again, the same chant, but you heard the prime minister, justin trudeau, has been speaking and he talked of being outraged and furious and what he

said there, also echoed by british prime minister boris johnson, said there, also echoed by british prime minister borisjohnson, was that this was an important first step towards the families getting justice. what the canadian government has said is they want compensation to be part of the discussion is moving forward as well, but the focus really from eve ryo ne well, but the focus really from everyone is on this full and open investigation in which there is international involvement as well. i have to say, we've just come from a memorial service for one couple from toronto that was killed, and there they said what has started as grief is now turned into anger, and that anger wasn'tjust is now turned into anger, and that anger wasn't just directed is now turned into anger, and that anger wasn'tjust directed at the iranian regime but also at the united states for escalating these tensions. aleem maqbool rounding off our coverage of iran there. next to the uk. senior members of the royal family, including the queen, will meet on monday to discuss the future for prince harry and meghan following their decision last week to step back from their prominent roles in the royal family. the summit at the queen's sandringham residence in eastern england is expected to look at a range of possibilities.

our royal correspondent, nicholas witchell, explains more on who will be present at the meeting. the first time they will have met face—to—face since the sussexes issued their personal statement on wednesday night. we think that megan, the duchess of sussex, will be joining megan, the duchess of sussex, will bejoining the megan, the duchess of sussex, will be joining the discussion megan, the duchess of sussex, will bejoining the discussion by telephone, probably from canada, where of course she is now. officials have been clearly working very ha rd officials have been clearly working very hard in the past 72 hours to better understand what it is the sussexes one. they've achieved that, i think, but they don't have a com plete i think, but they don't have a complete understanding of what they are seeking, but they will present, i think, a are seeking, but they will present, ithink, a range are seeking, but they will present, i think, a range of possibilities for the family to consider. certainly there is a consensus that this is going to take time. it is a complex range of issues that they have got to go through. first of all, they need to establish how much

royal official work are they still prepared to do, and they need to agree really the protocols for their nonroyal work. going out to make their own living, financial independence. what should be the rules of the game to prevent the sussexes for being too blatantly, to be powerfully candid about it, trading on their royal status. i think it will be businesslike and we don't expect many conclusions on monday but i think there will be an underlying sadness. it's clear this is what megan wants but one has to wonder whether this is really what harry wants, to be upsetting his grandmother in this way and to be losing respect, as he certainly is, toa losing respect, as he certainly is, to a degree, here in the united kingdom. taiwan's president, tsai ing—wen, has won a second term in an election dominated by the question of how to deal with an ever more powerful china, which has long threatened to take the self—governing island by force. ms tsai said beijing should recognise the will of taiwan's people and promised jubilant

supporters that she would preserve taiwan's sovereignty. our china correspondent, john sudworth, has sent this report from her victory rally in taipei. not long ago, she was struggling in the polls. now, she is being swept to a second presidential term. her strategy — rallying voters to a single cause. to show that we can be against the communists. yeah, so this is really important to us. has china been a factor for you? i think yes. it's my reason to vote — to defend our country. beijing's attempts to pressure president tsai with renewed threats to take taiwan by force have badly backfired. do you think you have the chinese president, xijinping, to thank

for this victory? translation: the taiwanese people insist on protecting our democracy. i hope china gets the correct message as a result of this election. there is in fact a great irony to these celebrations — beijing's authoritarian vision of a greater china wholeheartedly rejected in the one place that actually gets to vote on it. she has promised to stand up to china. the risk is it will only antagonise it further. john sudworth, bbc news, taiwan. i've been speaking to bonnie glaser, who's the director of the china power project at the csis think tank, about how china migh react.

well, china certainly won't be surprised by this outcome because the polls show that tsai ing—wen was likely to win a landslide victory, but i think that they will not conclude that its impossible for the dpp to be defeated in the future, thatis, dpp to be defeated in the future, that is, of course, tsai ing—wen's party, because, infact, that is, of course, tsai ing—wen's party, because, in fact, they will look at the vote in the legislator, which was held at the same time as the presidential vote, and they will see that the party vote, there are 34 see that the party vote, there are 3a seats in the legislature that are these party votes that are just people voting separately for single—member districts and also for party, and they will see that the dpp and kmt one exactly the same percentage and they will conclude that the support was for bonnie tsai ing—wen, in other words the kmt supported a bad candidate that didn't get the support of the people but in fact there is still support to some extent for opposition

parties. that's interesting, do you think then that china is essentially going to wait this out? yes, that's exactly what i think. the mayor of taipei, the new party, the people's party, china progressive, also won 1196 party, china progressive, also won ii% of the party vote, so that's another person that may be beige and can work within the future. so i do think they will wait this out for the next eight years. bonnie glazer on the taiwan elections. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: we'll find out about diego the ioo—year—old giant tortois, who's heading home after being credited with saving his species from extinction. the most intense air attack since the second world war. tobacco is

america's oldest industry and one of its biggest, but the industry is nervous of this report. this may tend to make people want to stop smoking cigarettes. there is not a street unaffected. huge parts of kobe were simply demolished as buildings crashed into one another. this woman said she had been given no help or advice by the authorities. she stood outside the ruins of her business. tens of thousands of black children in south africa have taken advantage of laws by the new multicultural government and enrolled at formerly white schools. tonight sees the 96ioth performance of the long—running play, the mousetrap. when they heard about her death today, the management considered cancelling the performance but agatha christie would have wanted nothing like that. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: after days of denial, iran has admitted shooting down a ukrainian passenger jet.

the admission has prompted angry protests on the streets of tehran. and, in the wake of harry and meghan's decision to step back from their roles, the queen and other senior royals will hold crisis talks at sandringham on monday. let's stay with our top story, iran admitting it accidentally shot down a passengerjet flying out of tehran. the trump administration has described it as a terrible tragedy, saying what it called iran's reckless actions had had devastating consequences. i have been speaking to national security analyst ari aramesh about how iran's admission has benefited donald trump. to put things into context, donald trump authorised the killing of qasem soleimani, the most capable, potent organiser and operator in the region, the man who had managed to operate and organise

the most potent anti—american elements in iraq and lebanon and syria, in yemen, you name it, even in afghanistan, and so on and so forth. a lot of our allies were not very happy with president trump. notjust because of this, because of his rhetoric — anti—nato, anti—this, from justin trudeau, our neighbour to the north, all the way to the uk, germany, france. after killing soleimani, a lot of our friends and allies were thinking this was not the wise thing to do, because this could wreak havoc in the region. well, the islamic republic of iran will never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. they launched missiles. thankfully, no—one got killed. and then they shot down an airliner that they thought was a cruise missile. and they try to cover it up, and always, the cover—up is always worse in the crime. they try to cover it up, and now they have to admit to the fault. the ball is now in their court.

president trump has taken a back seat, and is trying to see what he can do. at the same time... he hasn't been that successful foreign policy—wise, but right now, again, the pressure on the iranian regime, and then this miscalculation and sort of misfeasance has led to a couple of winning factors for the president. so this hugely plays into donald trump's hands. interesting that the white house and donald trump have not so far made big political hay out of this. they have not been on twitter or out talking about it. they have kind of kept to silence. that's obviously a deliberate strategy. it is, and the president — he's a very atypical president. on the one hand, he's very unpredictable. to give you an example, a couple of months ago, the iranian government shot down an american drone overfriendly skies. we all expected the president to come down harsh and hard. he didn't, he showed restraint. he bought himself a lot of goodwill. then again, after iranian missile

attacks against the saudi state oil company, arancim everybody thought there was going to be a us reaction, and there wasn't. before the attack against the us space, which resulted in the killing of qasem soleimani, over the last two or three weeks, there had been 12 missile attacks against american interests and bases without casualties. again, he held his tongue and his trigger. so trump has pursued a policy of maximum pressure, a lot of sanctions, hurt a lot of people, but also put a lot of pressure on the iranian regime. on the other hand, he's been unpredictable. when we least expect it, he pulled the trigger and killed qasem soleimani. we were expecting that would be much more costly for us foreign policy. but, again, the iranian reaction and then their miscalculation has led this to become a winning point, to this point, at least, for donald trump. let's get some of the day's other news: in libya, rebel forces loyal to general khalifa haftar have announced a ceasefire

in their campaign against the un—backed government in tripoli. they say it is conditional on other parties respecting it. the tripoli—based government has already said it would welcome a truce. authorities in southern india have demolished two luxury lakeside apartment complexes that were built in violation of environmental rules. the supreme court ordered the demolitions in kerala after a committee found that they broke rules protecting coastal areas. two more skyscrapers were set to be razed on sunday. the northern ireland assembly has sat for the first time in three years after a deal to restore power sharing at stormont. the dup leader, arlene foster, has been appointed first minister, while sinn fein's michelle o'neill is deputy first minister. chris page reports. it has been a long, tense, exhausting journey to bring back northern ireland's government. for three years, stormont has mainly been a nice venue for runners. now, it's a place of power again. speaker: order, order, members. in the assembly, politicians appointed the leader of the democratic unionist party

and the vice president of sinn fein to head up the power—sharing coalition. they both put the focus on the future. i'm not sure we will ever agree on much about the past, but we can agree that there was too much suffering, and that we cannot allow society to drift back and allow division to grow. let's not re—fight the battles of the past. it's time to bring people together. we can open doors, we can let the future in, we can give people hope, and we can give our young people opportunity. so, after more than 1,000 days, elected politicians are now back in control of this part of the uk. the deal to restore the devolved government can be read as an attempt to normalise politics here, move it away from divisive issues of identity and nationality, and make it more about health, education, the economy. whether your flag is the flag of ireland or the flag of britain, that doesn't really matter when you're not being cared for and looked after.

and the future of our children and the future for the economy, for small business owners, they're all things that are becoming more and more important, and people are just not really putting up with excuses anymore, that will argue about tribal politics. rebuilding political relationships won't be easy after such a toxic stalemate. northern ireland has a road map to stability, but there will be tough work ahead. chris page, bbc news, belfast. a 100—year—old giant tortoise credited with virtually saving his species from extinction is being released back into the wild. diego is believed to have fathered around 800 baby tortoises after he was recruited onto a captive breeding programme in the galapagos islands. the park service believes he was taken from the galapagos 80 years ago by a scientific expedition. i've been speaking to drjames gibbs from the galapagos conservancy centre, which worked with diego. i asked him what was the secret of diego's success.

it's a good question. he's had a tremendous amount of success. we estimate about 800 offspring and now legions of grandchildren. but he's got a personality unto himself. he is very strong willed, aggressive, sort of a flamboyant taught us, if one can say such sort of a flamboyant taught us, if one can say such a sort of a flamboyant taught us, if one can say such a thing —— tortoise. but he's definitely the one that's always doing the meeting and pushing out the other two males. there is just three males that... his whole species has gone through this tremendous bottleneck, but he's the one that is most active. very strong personality, quite aggressive. i don't think i've ever heard the phrase flamboyant tortoise before, but i'm very pleased i have, and i'm pleased that came from you, james. so what's the kind of idea here? how under threat was the species? how bad were things? you know, things were bad that they were given up as extinct and when the

galapagos national park was first established in 1960, the first director had the idea let's just go and check on that island, just to determine that they were actually gone. and they went and they actually found a couple. they had recovered with lichens, and they clearly hadn't mated and found one another. they returned repeatedly and ended up just another. they returned repeatedly and ended upjust collecting another. they returned repeatedly and ended up just collecting 1a, another. they returned repeatedly and ended upjust collecting 1a, the last 1a of these animals are scattered over the island. this 15th, as you mentioned, was taken off the island in the 1930s and he was flown back from san diego zoo, where he was, tojoin was flown back from san diego zoo, where he was, to join the colony of 15. and they have been there for the last 50 years, all in a couple of corrals, mating away, they have produced 2000 offspring. and those have steadily been driven back onto the island, and they are now touring. there's actually grandchildren now touring and breeding on the island. so it's been a long saga, but it has gone from assumed extinct to now this momentous occasion and a couple of months, the release of these 15, and

this real bottleneck, and those going back into nature with all of their kids and grandkids. in the whole management conservation apparatus will be able to step out of the picture. the lichens will be basically taking care of themselves again. it's quite a remarkable story in conservation. it is, give us a flavour of what will happen now. how old is he now and how long has he got to enjoy his retirement? yes, it's a very good question, because he was an adult in the 1930s when he was collected. he has gotten a little the worse for wear these days but he is still going very, very strong. and so with ink that he could be 100 years old, and he could easily have another 25, 50 years left. -- we think.

just before we go, i want to show you some pictures from sydney, where a tribute to the many thousands of firefighters tackling the unprecedented bushfires across the country has been projected on to the opera house. hello. saturday was another mild and wet and windy day, rather like january has been thus far. and the reason for it— the jetstream has looked like this. and you will notice as i take you through the next few days it will continue in similar vein. pretty next few days it will continue in similarvein. pretty strong, next few days it will continue in similar vein. pretty strong, firing in from the west and south—west, and in each kink we will see a succession of low pressure systems delivering yet more wet and windy and mild weather towards the british isles. and that's rather how we start the day across a good part of england and wales, although i suspect that once the cloud and rain has quit the scene by around about lunchtime on the east coast, it will

bea lunchtime on the east coast, it will be a glorious afternoon. plenty of sunshine around, dry for the most pa rt sunshine around, dry for the most part as well, save for a peppering of showers across the north and west of showers across the north and west of scotland, urged along in this neck of the woods by noticeable south—westerly winds, but nowhere near as windy for many of us as was the case on saturday, and those temperatures still hanging onto double figures down across the southern half of britain. and then, as the sun sets, the temperatures will tumble away underneath relatively clear skies. yes, one or two showers still coming through on the breeze, but things were cloud up through the west to finish off the night, but further west it could be a chilly start to monday. i dry one for many of us as well. that, however, will not last very long. notice the number of isobars here, squeezing up all the while, is a very vigorous squeezing up all the while, is a very vigorous area squeezing up all the while, is a very vigorous area of low pressure throws this act if weather front in towards the western side of the british isles. not very far into monday. so don't be fooled by the dry start, because it will turn increasingly very wet indeed from the west to many parts of northern ireland, certainly scotland, the west of england, then into wales,

and the gusts of wind willjust keep on building, such that at some point we could well see gusts of wind to around 60,70, if we could well see gusts of wind to around 60, 70, if not 80 we could well see gusts of wind to around 60,70, if not 80 miles of our in extremis across the north and west of scotland. not a cold day by any means at all, but want to watch out for, especially if you are on the move. and as with that area of low pressure quitting the scene, it just makes room for another spell of wet and windy weather to pioline on tuesday from this south—western quarter. so again, many of you start the day dry and chilly and bright, but it doesn't stay that way, and as this mild air rushes up towards the scottish borders, there will be a conversion, we suspect of rain and snow across the southern uplands and north of the central belt across the higher ground. very mild indeed in the south. so disruptively windy, really quite wet at times, in the first part of the week. mild, perhaps a tad drier later in the week.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

iran's admission that it accidentally shot down a ukrainian airliner killing all on board, has prompted angry protests on the streets of the capital, tehran. some demonstrators are calling for the country's supreme leader to step down. president trump has expressed his support for the protestors. 57 canadians died in the crash. prime minister trudeau has demanded a full and complete investigation and says many more steps need to be taken. in total, 176 people died in the disaster. the queen is to host crisis talks with princes charles, william and harry at sandringham on monday. now it's time for newsbeat documentaries.