HAVANA (Reuters) – An American aid contractor who worked in a U.S. program aimed at undermining Cuba's communist government went on trial on Friday, accused of crimes against the state, but no verdict was reached and testimony will continue on Saturday, trial observers said.

Alan Gross, 61, faces a possible 20-year sentence if convicted in a case that halted a brief period of improvement in U.S.-Cuban relations and could damage them for years if Gross is imprisoned for long.

He is accused of supplying Internet equipment, including sophisticated satellite phones, to dissidents in violation of Cuban law.

Gross spoke on his own behalf in the trial, making "a free declaration" and responding to questions from his attorneys, prosecutors and the panel of judges hearing the case, according to a Cuban government statement.

Gross and his Cuban lawyers "presented a vigorous defense today," said Peter Kahn, his U.S. lawyer, in a separate statement.

But, he said, "We respectfully urge the Cuban authorities to free Alan immediately."

The government said other witnesses also testified and evidence from investigators was presented.

Kahn attended the trial with wife Judy Gross, but Gross' defense is being conducted by Cuban lawyers.

U.S. consular officials attended the trial, but neither they nor a U.S. spokeswoman could comment. The foreign press was not allowed in the court.

The United States, at odds with Cuba for more than five decades, said he provided Internet service to Jewish groups but committed no crimes.

A casually dressed Gross was seen on Friday morning arriving at the court, located in a former residence in a Havana suburb, in a black car accompanied by a caravan of Cuban security agents. The same car and caravan were seen leaving immediately after testimony ended.

Verdicts are usually rendered quickly in Cuban trials but decisions on sentencing can take several days.

Prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of 20 years for Gross, jailed since his arrest in Havana on December 3, 2009.

POLITICAL SOLUTION?

Some observers believe a political solution will be reached that will allow Gross to go free soon.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington the United States was "deeply concerned" about the case and called for his release.

"He's been unjustly jailed for far too long," she said. "We call on the government of Cuba to release him and unconditionally allow him to leave Cuba and return to his family to bring an end to their long ordeal."

Judy Gross has pleaded with Cuba for his release for humanitarian reasons because their 26-year-old daughter and Alan Gross' 88-year-old mother have cancer.

Gross was a contractor for a U.S. Agency for International Development program to foster political change in Cuba.

The programs have been criticized in the United States for doing little more than provoking the Cuban government, but supporters say they are helping fight Cuba's one-party state.

Cuba was expected to use the trial to put a spotlight on U.S. activities on the island. Cuban leaders view Gross' work as part of long-standing U.S. efforts to sabotage the communist government put in place after Fidel Castro rose to power in a 1959 revolution.

In a recently leaked video of a Ministry of Interior briefing, an Internet expert equated Gross to the "mercenaries" who took part in the 1961 U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion.

Internet access is limited in Cuba but the expert said the Internet is the newest front in the long ideological war between the two countries.

U.S. Jewish organizations have appealed for Gross' release but Cuban Jewish leaders have kept their distance from him. There have been reports Cuban Jews may testify against him.

"We don't need the sophisticated equipment that supposedly Gross brought to Cuba. We have legal Internet," Cuban Jewish leader Adela Dworin told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Rosa Tania Valdes, Nelson Acosta and Esteban Israel in Havana, and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Jeff Franks; Editing by Todd Eastham and Jackie Frank)

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Army official has recommended that the Army major charged in the 2009 shooting rampage at a Texas Army base face a court martial and possible death penalty charges, the Army said on Friday.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a 40-year-old Army psychiatrist who U.S. officials linked to a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen, is charged in a shooting spree at Fort Hood that killed 13 people and wounded 32 others on November 5, 2009.

Colonel Morgan Lamb, a Fort Hood brigade commander, forwarded his non-binding recommendation to Lieutenant General Robert Cone, the Fort Hood commander who will have the final word on setting a possible court martial.

"We can confirm that Lamb did recommend that the charges pending against Hasan be sent to a general court-marital authorized to consider capital punishment," the Fort Hood public affairs office said in a statement.

The statement did not set a deadline for Cone to act. Retired Colonel John Galligan, Hasan's attorney, could not be reached to comment.

Hasan did not speak during evidentiary hearings held at Fort Hood in October 2010. Instead, he silently watched the proceedings from his wheelchair. He was paralyzed from the chest down by bullet wounds inflicted by civilian police officers during the shooting.

In the rampage at the world's largest military facility, victims recalled hearing Hasan, who is Muslim, shout "Allahu Akbar" -- Arabic for "God is Greatest" -- just before opening fire on a group of soldiers undergoing health checks before being deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The incident has raised concerns over the threat of "home-grown" militant attacks. U.S. officials said Hasan had exchanged e-mails with Anwar al-Awlaki, an anti-American al Qaeda figure based in Yemen.

Fort Hood is a major deployment point for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

(Editing by Jackie Frank)

DENVER (Reuters) – A 12-year-old boy was charged on Friday with murdering his parents and gravely wounding two of his siblings in a shooting and stabbing rampage in an eastern Colorado farming town.

Robert Watson, the district attorney for Kit Carson County, filed two counts of first-degree murder against the boy for the killing of his parents, Marilyn Long, 51, and her husband, Charles, 50, earlier this week.

Watson said in a telephone interview that the crime has rocked the residents of Burlington, Colorado, a rural town of 4,400 near the Kansas state line.

The filing of criminal charges against the boy, he said, will add to the grief of the community and the victims' family.

"The (Long) family is going be hurt even more," Watson told Reuters. "There is not going to be a happy ending."

Prosecutors also lodged attempted murder and aggravated assault charges against the boy for the shooting and stabbing of his nine-year-old brother, Ethan, and the slashing of his sister, Sara, 5.

The two small children remain hospitalized in Denver with serious wounds, but are expected to recover.

Because of the boy's age, the case was filed under a "juvenile petition," meaning if he is tried as an adult, those are the criminal charges he would face.

Police said the 12-year-old boy called 911 Tuesday night to report that three people were shot at his home in Burlington on the plains of Colorado, about 165 miles east of Denver.

When police responded to the residence they discovered the parents dead and the two small children with critical injuries.

Detectives questioned the boy for several hours the following day before arresting him.

A juvenile court judge on Thursday ordered the boy held without bond, and he was transferred to a youth detention facility.

Watson said he has not decided whether to try the boy as an adult. That determination, he said, will be based on psychological reports, family history, the boy's maturity level and a number of other factors.

Should prosecutors seek to try the 12-year-old as an adult, a juvenile court judge must rule to move the case to adult court, Watson said.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb)