Saudi's King Abdullah Laid to Rest; Deadline Passes With No Word On Fate Of Japanese Hostages
KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet. Now Saudi Arabia pays respects to King Abdullah and prepares to his successor. We'll examine the global implications. Also ahead, fate unknown -- the deadline passes for two hostages held by the terror group ISIS. And, Yemen's government collapses. What will fill the power vacuum? World leaders and thousands of mourners have gathered in the capital of Saudi Arabia to honor the life of King Abdullah. The 90-year-old monarch passed away early Friday local time after battling pneumonia. Now the funeral began less than an hour ago with prayers. Now the king is to be buried in the House of Saud cemetery in Riyadh. Afterwards, members of the royal family will pay their respects to the new monarch. Now let's get more now with Becky Anderson. She's following the very latest from CNN Abu Dhabi. She joins us now. And Becky the funeral for the king has been a rather simple and modest affair. Could you describe the proceedings for us?</s>BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Yeah, and that was expected: a short, simple service with little sign of emotion, no eulogies nor any tributes. It was in the imam Turkey mosque. He was, as you rightly suggest will now be buried elsewhere. Perhaps slightly surprising for those who are unaware of tradition there, but very similar to the proceedings back in 2005 of King Fahd who Abdullah, of course, succeeded. World leaders are making their way to Riyadh. And I'll talk about reaction from around the region and the world shortly. But we saw in attendance at the funeral service the emir of Kuwait, and next to him the king of Bahrain and the emir of Qatar, a clearly and understandably strong showing from the GCC. And given this funeral happened, what, 14 hours after the initial announcement of the king's death. He was 90. And it appears died of complications from pneumonia. It is perhaps understandable that not everybody who wants to be in attendance has already arrived. But the idea being that those who don't make the funeral will be arriving over the next hours and days to pay their condolences to the Saudi royal family -- Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: Full attendance at the funeral service today. Becky Anderson reporting live for us live from Abu Dhabi. Thank you, Becky. Now let's take a closer look at King Abdullah's legacy. Now he ascended the Saudi throne in August of 2005, ushering great expectations. Two months later, in his first televised interview as king Abdullah told ABC's Barbara Walters about his dream of reforming and expanding women's rights in the country. He said this, quote, "I believe strongly in the rights of women. I believe the day will come when women drive." And while that day never came in his lifetime, he did make it possible for women to vote and to run in local municipal elections. He was also the first Saudi monarch to appoint women to government positions. Also under his rein, Saudi Arabia opened the first co-ed university, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. And he started a scholarship program to help young people study abroad, making it possible for more than 100,000 Saudi male and female students to attend American universities. Now let's bring in CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson. He was in Saudi Arabia for the funeral of King Fahd in 2005. And Nic joins us now live from London. And Nic, will there be a smooth political transition now in Saudi Arabia?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're seeing it already. I mean, this is precisely what's happening. This is essentially the moment that, you know, Saudi Arabia's leadership knew that this day was coming and the most important thing for them is for continuity, for a smooth process to show their population, but more importantly the region and the world, that things will continue, that continuity is maintained in Saudi Arabia. Don't expect any radical big changes in policy, particularly international external policy. In the short-term what may happen in the future is more likely to be gradual. You know, what King Abdullah understood is that to change a country you need to grapple with the education of the young. And so his policy of providing so much opportunity for education, co-ed education inside the country groundbreaking was his efforts to change the fact that he came up short on trying to push ahead reforms that would allow women to drive underscore the deep cultural, if you will, ties that the country has to its past and its inability to shift the population and other key players who've had a more traditional education inside Saudi Arabia. So, you know, in this context he was seen as a reformer inside the country. His gains as viewed from outside may seem modest, but really that underscores the nature of where Saudi Arabia stands today. And if you want to look at his sort of modus operandi, if you will, in terms of countering conservative values, the flogging handed down to a blogger, 1,000 lashes to be metered out at 50 a week. The king intervening after the first week, putting a hold on it. The second week putting a hold on it. So, this was a man who was in a way still here fighting the system in the last weeks of his life -- Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: The games were modest, but King Abdullah was seen as a reformer. What about the new king of Saudi Arabia? Is he as interested in political and social reform as his predecessor?</s>ROBERTSON: You know, it's very hard to know precisely what is going to be the agenda of the new king. In Saudi terms, the ideas are not shared broadly outside a key people within the royal family. so it's very hard to judge that. But what we really can expect is continuity and not a great deal of change. Huge pressing issues for this king. To the north you have an Iraq that Saudis see as much more influenced by Iran than it was in the past, a growing problem with ISIS. They attacked the border with Saudi Arabia in the past few weeks killing and injuring Saudi border guards. That's an issue. King Abdullah has decided to beef up the military defenses in Saudi Arabia with $150 billion spend over the coming years, significant. They want a much more aggressive policy in taking down, if you will, President Bashar al Assad in Syria than the west wants. They wanted King Abdullah wanted to put 50,000 troops inside Syria to take care of that issue. They're being very forward leaning on tackling ISIS. They feel that ISIS and its global caliphate plans are a direct threat to Saudi Arabia, because they would target the two holiest sites in Islam, Mecca and Medina. So this, again, is a strong reason for the Saudi leadership to tackle ISIS. To the south, Yemen: they would see the Houthis -- the Saudis would see the Houthis as being backed by Iran. The Houthis bringing the latest instability to Yemen. So, you know, the views from Saudi Arabia are to a prism of concerns about Iran, concerns about stability and concerns about stability in the region. All of this on the king's plate, but he's not likely to change course radically. The shifts perhaps we will see them come more slowly, Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: A number of significant challenges confronting the new king. Nic Robertson reporting live from London. Thank you, Nic. Now also this hour, concern over the fate of two Japanese hostages after a deadline to secure their release has come and gone. Now ISIS had demanded Japan pay a ransom of $200 million. Now the militant group publicly threatened to kill the men. Now after the ransom deadline passed, ISIS was reportedly to release a statement. That was some hours ago now. Now CNN's Will Ripley is following developments from Tokyo. He joins us now. And Will what is the latest word about the hostages?</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Seven hours after that deadline has come and gone, Kristie, the Japanese government still cannot make contact with ISIS. But the terror group is able to make contact with another Japanese presence, a Japanese media outlet, NHK, the public broadcaster, coming out with a report today that they have been emailing back and forth with ISIS. ISIS telling the television station that they will be coming out with a statement and also refusing to comment when questioned about any negotiations with the Japanese government. Now Kristie, this is really raising some serious concerns here in Tokyo, because if Japanese officials' best efforts, including reaching out to intelligence sources in Turkey and Jordan, couldn't get ISIS to respond, but yet ISIS is so eager to speak with a broadcaster then perhaps that $200 (sic) extortion attempt, the video, perhaps they weren't ever really expecting to get that money. Maybe this was all about publicity, something that might be even more valuable to them right now considering that the coalition against ISIS says thousands of their soldiers have been killed, their numbers are down. What they may need is recruits. And we know the sad, sick reality is, is that people tend to join ISIS in droves every time they put an execution on video. They've done it five times to five westerners since August. And there are serious fears here in Japan tonight, Kristie, that two innocent men could soon be added to that awful list.</s>LU STOUT: Yeah, Syria's fears and concern, and the mother of one of the hostages has been pleading for mercy. What is her message to the hostage takers?</s>RIPLEY: Kenji Goto's mother, a courageous woman -- Kristie, I don't know how she was able to do it, but she stood in front of a row of dozens of cameras today. And she made an emotional plea, a plea directly to ISIS for the safety of her son. Take a listen. It's not, Kristie, so I'll tell you...</s>LU STOUT: That was CNN's Will Ripley reporting from Tokyo. Our apologies for the technical disruption there. Will, you wanted to continue with your point?</s>RIPLEY: I just wanted to tell you, Kristie, we didn't have that sound, but the mother told ISIS directly. She said, "my son is not your enemy. He is not an enemy of anybody. He is there to report." And she also revealed, Kristie, a very sad and new detail that Kenji Goto's wife is at home right now caring for their newborn baby, a child that was just two weeks old when Goto took his trip to Syria in late October just adding to the layers of tragedy to this whole situation.</s>LU STOUT: Thank you for summarizing what was said in that mother's video. A plea for mercy, tremendous grief but also bravery as well in that video. Will Ripley reporting live from Tokyo for us. Thank you, Will. Now you're watching News Stream. And still to come on the program, Yemen's government calls it quits as rebels take over the capital. A look at who is actually in control in Sanaa just after the break. Also ahead, Thailand's former prime minister now faces an impeachment. And that's on top of criminal charges that could put her away for years. Details ahead. And Microsoft has unveiled its new virtual reality platform HoloLens. Later this hour, we take a look at how the headset stacks up against the competition.