Woodruff sleaterkinney is here, we talk with the indie rock icons about their first album in ten years. I felt like a lot of music was feeling very much comforting, soft, nonthreatening sort of smiewks which i dont relate to as much as i do this vital, very visceral, physical music. Those are some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Years. Moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your life and become youre own chief life officer. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff new leaders took their places today in saudi arabia, in the wake of King Abdullahs passing. His death came as the worlds leading oil state, and home to islams holiest sites, faces unparalleled challenges from without, and within. Woodruff it was a simple funeral for one of the worlds richest and most powerful men. King abdullahs remains lay beneath a simple covering, as Muslim Leaders paid their respects. Later, hundreds gathered at a riyadh cemetery as he was buried in an unmarked grave, in accordance with islamic tradition. Earlier, the new king, salman bin abdulaziz, pledged continuity with his brothers policies. translated we extend our condolences to the loyal nation of saudi arabia as well as the arab and muslim nations for the loss of our great man, the our arab and muslim nation mostly needs unity these days and we will continue, god willing, in our unity efforts to unite and defend our nation. Woodruff abdullah died thursday, at the age of 90. Hed served as the countrys ruler effectively for 20 years the first decade while his half brother, king fahd, was in poor health. Then, at fahds death in 2005, abdullah became king in his own right. He ruled a land rife with social pressures roughly half of the kingdoms 20 Million People are under the age of 25. And despite great oil wealth many lack jobs, housing or education. So, abdullah pressed limited reforms, including a 90 billion Economic Program in 2011. And, in a land dominated by a strict brand of islam, he opened a university that allowed men and women to share classrooms, and he allowed women to enter political life. translated because we refuse to marginalize the role of women in every aspect of Saudi Society within shariah boundaries, we have decided the following firstly, the participation of women in the Shura Council as a member beginning from the next term within the regulations of shariah. Secondly, from the next term, a woman now has the right to announce her candidacy to become members of the local municipality councils. Woodruff still, abdullah never gave into demands for women to drive, and he suppressed dissent after the 2011 arab spring, and allowed public beheadings and flogging. Abroad, the saudi ruler expanded the reach of his sunni kingdom supporting the military coup in egypt and the sunni ruler in bahrain against shiite protesters. In syria, he aided rebels against president bashar al assad, whos backed by shiite iran. And, he sought to maintain close relations with the United States, helping in the fight against Islamic State militants and cracking down on alqaida and its sympathizers. Abdullah explained his views on such groups before the u. N. General assembly in 2008. translated the problems of the world are caused by people rejecting the principles of justice. Terrorism and crime are the enemies of god and every religion and civilization. Woodruff in online postings today, supporters of both al qaeda and the Islamic State cheered abdullahs death and painted him as a u. S. Puppet. But secretary of state john kerry spoke in glowing terms, in davos, switzerland. And i was privileged to spend many hours with the king, as a senator and particularly over the last two years. I saw him a few months ago. He was obviously not well, but he was courageous, great sense of humor, even in the midst of all the crises. Woodruff the crises fall now to king salman, whos 79. Hes already moving to ensure the line of succession, naming his 69yearold half brother muqrin as crown prince, and his nephew, mohammed nayef, age 55, as secondinline. Salman faces the immediate challenge of yemen, on his southern border, where the government has fallen to shiite rebels. The worlds top oil exporting state must also deal with the loss of revenues from plunging oil prices. Woodruff well talk to former top officials under two president s about the saudi situation and its broader implications, after the news summary. That ongoing chaos in yemen brought thousands of people into the streets today. Huge crowds turned out in the capital, sanaa, to support shiite Houthi Rebels against the proamerican president who resigned yesterday. To the south, thousands more demanded the president s return, along with his cabinet. Parliament has called an emergency session for sunday on whether to accept the resignations. Woodruff the deadline has come and gone for two japanese hostages held by Islamic State forces in syria. On tuesday the militants had threatened to kill kenji goto and Haruna Yukawa unless japan paid 200 million within 72 hours. As the deadline passed today, the Group Announced the countdown has begun. Japanese officials said theyre still trying to free the captives. translated for the government, it remains a severe situation. We will do our utmost on various fronts towards the release of the two japanese nationals request cooperation from those who are relevant, and do everything we can in our powers. That remains unchanged. Woodruff the japanese spokesman said there has been no direct contact with the captors. Beefedup prorussian rebels in ukraine promised a major new offensive today. They rejected a previous cease fire pact, and ruled out joining any future peace talks. Instead, their leader said his forces are advancing in five directions to push Government Troops out of the donetsk area near the russian border. translated we made the decision not to wait until the Ukrainian Army starts an offensive and not allow them to make battle formations, fists of attack and allow them to harm us in any way. We will attack until we reach the borders of donetsk region. Woodruff the fighting in ukraine has spiked lately and the u. N. Human Rights Agency said today that 260 people have been killed in just the last nine days. It said some 51 hundred have died since the conflict began last april. A top u. S. Official acknowledged today its not clear if cuba will agree to any human rights reforms as part of restoring diplomatic ties. Assistant secretary of state Roberta Jacobson spoke in havana, after concluding two days of talks. She said profound disagreements remain on the issue of reforms. Its very hard to say exactly how this will work. We think that we need to make decisions in our own interest and take decisions that are to going to empower the cuban people but the verdict on whether that succeeds is still to be made. Woodruff cubas top diplomat on u. S. Affairs warned last night that her government does not respond to pressure. In this country, the u. S. Supreme court agreed to hear a case on execution by lethal injection for the First Time Since 2008. Death row inmates in oklahoma want to bar a sedative used in executions in the state. They say it can leave the prisoners still conscious and subject to pain. A Measles Outbreak that began at disneyland in california prompted a new medical appeal today. The American Academy of pediatricians urged vaccinations for all young children. 70 cases of measles have been reported across six states, likely stemming from exposure to an infected foreign tourist at disneyland. And on wall street, stocks were mostly lower, on subpar corporate earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 141 points to close at 17,672. The sandp 500 slipped 11, to finish at 2051. But the nasdaq rose seven points to close below 4758. For the week the dow gained about 1 , while the sandp added 1. 6 . The nasdaq jumped more than 2. 5 . Still to come on the newshour, what the death of the saudi monarch and a government in turmoil in yemen means for the region and the u. S; broke and desperate, greek voters head to the polls to elect a new government; mark shields and david brooks on the weeks news; and indie rock icon Sleater Kinney on their latest album. Woodruff a new king in saudi arabia, unrest in yemen, and Islamic State militants on the march across syria and iraq. Its a region thats no stranger to turmoil, but this week has been marked by increasing volatility. We explore the challenges these events pose to the u. S. With two men who have extensive experience making and managing American Foreign policy. Leon panetta was secretary of defense and the director of the cia during the obama administration. And Stephen Hadley was National Security advisor during the george w. Bush administration. We welcome you both to the program. Secretary panetta. So you, first. Saudi Arabia King Abdullah has kid, a new king is in prays. Everybody is saying they expect stability, continuity. Is that what you expect . Or given the royal family, Something Different . Something much rougher . I think at least in the short term that stability will continue in saudi arabia. Thats the way they do things. The new king will pretty much, i think continue policies of king abdullah. They will maintain a strong relationship with the United States, probably continue the oil policies theyre involved with and i think theyll generally continue a lot of the policies that saudi arabia was involved with. I think the real big question is going to be how they ultimately deal with all the other turmoil going on in the middle east. Thats dpoipght be the question going to be the question mark for the future. On the royal family, Stephen Steve hadley, you dont expect a how we are struggle . Two things mitigate against that. King abdullah and now king salman Work Together to arrange this succession. Well go from salman to muqrin and so on. Secondly, the turmoil in the region, the problems in yemen, the challenge of iran and the Islamic State, there is so much turmoil, the last thing saudi arabia needs is a battle of succession crisis. So i think those things will lower the risk of an out and out struggle and will encourage the family to keep the succession on track and maintain the stability thats important for the country at this point. Woodruff i heard you continue expect much change when it comes to economic or oil policy, secretary panetta. You expect saudi arabia to continue this policy of pumping a lot of oil even as the prices are dropping . I do, judy. I think theyre going to continue that policy. Theyre going to continue to try to squeeze others so that, ultimately they think they have the both the economic capability and certainly the ability when it comes to oil to maintain that kind of pressure. Do you see the same thing . And thus do you see a saudi arabia that continues to be a huge player in the region . There certainly will be a huge player in the region. One of the things about oil prices they probably like, the low oil prices, is it does put pressure on russia over ukraine, it puts pressure on the iranians, it will probably discourage some of the investment in the u. S. Tide oil and shale gas markets. But remember in the 1980s when this happened, saudi did lower production but nobody else in opec did, and they lost market share. I think theyre not willing to do that at this point. They have enormous reserves. They are a very lowcost producer of oil. I think they probably figure that they can ride out a period of low prices better than anybody else and maintain market shares. So i think thats probably behind the policy youve seen and i would expect now king salman would continue that policy. Secretary panetta we spoke earlier about saudi arabia taking a more aggressive policy in the region in recent years, certainly involved in syria supporting the rebels against president assad. We see there part of the fight against al quaida. How do you see that carrying on now especially with the turmoil next door in yemen . Well, i worry a great deal about the crisis that were seeing in the middle east. Theres just too many flashpoints that are going on all at the same time. We not only have the you know, almost a failed government occurring in yemen now with the shiite how houthis taking over there and they will be at the war with the sunnis trying to figure out whos to run the country, could split the country, the a breeding ground for aqap and for terrorism. Could get worse in the future. Its happening in libya which is another failed state with split forces going at it. We see whats happening the i. S. I. S. Impacting on syria, impacting on iraq. We see the growing influence of iran in that region and in lebanon and syria. I think all of that has produced tremendous concern. Woodruff is that what you see, steve hadley . How do you see the leadership the priorities its going to put in place . Well, you know the strags has put together a regional the administration has put together a regional configuration involving the more moderate states to deal with the issue of iraq and syria. So there is a framework to deal with the issues. I think probably the emirates and the saudis would say were too slow and too late doing so but the framework is in place. I think you will probably see under king salman a continued activist saudi policy. Salman was instrumental in backing the ma jay ha dean, coming to the defense of the muslims in the because in the bosnian crisis. I think you will see a saudi arabia that is going to want to be activist and will push the United States to have a more active role. Woodruff so many look at the relationships between saudis and iran big sunni state versus big shia statement how do you see that relationship and to you expect to see a change or a shift . You know, as im sure steve has, ive had the opportunity to sit down with the royal family and the king and discuss these policies and i think tell you that they are very concerned about iran and its influence. They really do think that iran represents a force for evil in that region and are very concerned about the spreading influence that iran is trying to have in that region and, frankly, were pushing the United States to do more to try to deal with iran, and i think were a little frustrated by what was happening. I think they view iran as representing this kind of potential division that could occur in the middle east between the shiites and the sunnis and thats already occurring as we see in these many nations, and that confrontation between the sunnis and this kind of growing persian empire represented by iran is, in the saudi view, i think, one of the real dangers in the middle east. Woodruff so, steve hadley, do you see any shift in that approach, any easing of that tension between saudi arabia and iran . Because it is as we have been discussing, saudi arabia faces so many other challenging. The saudis are very worried about iran. Eth one of the challenges for the administration if we should get a nuclear deal with iran, the saudis are fearful that it reflects a shift of american policy back to iran and away from saudi. So one of the challenges for the administration will be if they do get a Nuclear Agreement with iran, they are going to have to take measures to reassure the saudis and other friend and allies in the region, that we are going to continue to confront iran in their bad and threatening behavior in iraq and syria and lebanon in h their support for terror and i think that will be an important element for a packaging that needs to go around any Nuclear Agreement that the United States and the p5 plus 1 enter into with iran. Woodruff lot of moving parts. Steve hadley, thank you. Secretary leon panette we thank you. Woodruff battling high unemployment and punishing austerity measures, greeks are headed to the ballot box this weekend. Leading the polls is a radical leftist party that wants to renegotiate its bailout deals, sparking fears in europe that other eurozone countries will follow suit. Sreenivasan its the election that many in greece dont seem to want. Elections should not be happening now. Its the worst time for the economy, for security, the people are not in a good mood, no one is spending money. translated i wish we were not going to elections. We should have left the government to continue its work and see what it would do. Sreenivasan but the Greek Parliament failed to elect a new president back in december, so a snap election is set for this sunday. It comes as many voters are still struggling to find work after six years of deep recession and Government Spending cuts. The Unemployment Rate remains above 25 and among young people its double that 50. 6 . Giota vamvaka is 28 years old and says shes lucky she has any job. translated the only job i have ever managed to find both before and during my first degree, and even now that i am in my second degree, is as a waitress, nothing else. Making coffee, serving, behind the bar, the usual parttime survival jobs. Sreenivasan the unrest in the country has spilled into the streets with antiausterity protests taking hold on a regular basis. Against that backdrop, the leftist syriza party is expected to win sunday, though not with a majority. It opposes austerity measur