A court convicted Amir Mirzaei Hekmati of “working for an enemy country,” as well as membership in the CIA and “efforts to accuse Iran of involvement in terrorism,” the semi-official Fars news agency reported Monday.

The sentence came down five months after Hekmati’s arrest.

Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA, on its English website, said the court found him “caught red-handed in armed struggle against God” and “corrupt on Earth.”

“In the proceedings Hekmati said he had the motivation to infiltrate (the) Iranian intelligence system on behalf of the CIA,” a report said.

Hekmati’s parents said they were “shocked and terrified” by the news.

“We believe that this verdict is the result of a process that was neither transparent nor fair,” Behnaz Hekmati wrote in a statement on behalf of herself and her husband Ali.

“Amir did not engage in any acts of spying, or ‘fighting against God,’ as the convicting judge has claimed in his sentence. Amir is not a criminal. His very life is being exploited for political gain,” the statement said.

“A grave error has been committed, and we have authorized our legal representatives to make direct contact with the Iranian authorities to find a solution to this misunderstanding. We pray that Iran will show compassion and not murder our son, Amir, a natural born American citizen, who was visiting Iran and his relatives for the first time.”

The statement also said Iran was denying that Amir is a U.S. citizen.

Previously, the family said Hekmati was being represented by a government-appointment lawyer despite their repeated efforts to hire a private lawyer for him.

American accused of spying in Iran Hekmati was arrested in August while visiting his grandmother and other relatives, his family in Michigan said last month.

The Hekmatis said their son served in the Marines from 2001 to 2005. Later, he started his own linguistics company and contracted his services to the military as well as civilian businesses.

His military contracts included cultural competency training. He worked with troops at military bases to promote understanding and positive communication with people of other cultures, his family said.

Fars reported that Hekmati said he worked for the U.S. Army for four years and later the CIA, where he was sent to Afghanistan and had access to secret documents.

Fars also reported that Hekmati told a judge he worked for the CIA and that he was to be paid for delivering information to Iran’s intelligence ministry.

He was supposed to give his information to the Iranians in two parts — the first part for free, and if they liked it, he would ask for $500,000 for the second part, the news agency said.

Hekmati said he was to get a receipt from the intelligence ministry for the money, Fars reported. The judge speculated whether the receipt would later be used as evidence linking Iran to terrorist activities, the news agency said.

If Iran had paid, Hekmati told the judge, he would have kept the money and lived in Iran, according to Fars.

Iran’s notorious secretive trials have been assailed by human rights groups and governments around the globe.

The U.S. State Department’s annual human rights report on Iran says the court system is, in practice “corrupt and subject to political influence.” And while the country’s constitution provides defendants the right to a public trial, presumption of innocence, and a lawyer of his or her choice, “These rights were not respected in practice.”

Hekmati’s sentencing comes amid tensions between Iran and the United States. The U.S. government and other Western nations have sanctioned Tehran over its failure to cooperate on nuclear issues.

Hekmati is the latest in a series of Americans to face arrest in the country in recent years.

Three U.S. hikers, also accused of spying, were arrested in 2009 and ultimately released. Sarah Shourd was freed on medical grounds in 2010; Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were freed in September 2011.

Journalist Roxana Saberi was arrested in January 2009 and convicted of espionage in a one-day trial that was closed to the public. She was freed in May that year.

Reza Taghavi, an Iranian-American retired businessman, was freed by Iran in 2010 after being held more than two years on suspicion of supporting an anti-regime group, his lawyer said.

Iranian-American Kian Tajbakhsh was among many people arrested in July 2009, amid post-election protests and a massive government crackdown. Exactly what he was convicted of was not clear. In March the next year, he was allowed temporary release within the country to celebrate the Persian New Year. That temporary release was later extended, according to the website freekian09.org, which works for his release.

A North Korean state television broadcast of the services showed a tearful Kim Jong Un, the son and chosen successor of Kim Jong Il, trudging through the snow alongside the procession as it began at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where Kim Jong Il’s body had been lying in state since his death earlier this month.

One black car carried on its roof a coffin draped in the flag of the nation’s Worker’s Party. Another transported a giant portrait of a smiling Kim.

Senior officials accompanied the younger Kim, including Jang Song Taek, his uncle and a vice chairman of the National Defense Commission.
‘I want to know what happened to my dad’

Soldiers stood with their heads bowed, their caps in hand. Their green uniforms contrasted starkly with the bright white snow as mournful music played.

The long funeral cortege then sped up, weaving through the streets of the city past throngs of emotional mourners. In footage that the state television repeated several times, the mourners wailed and beat their chests, their hair damp from the falling snow.

“That is our general,” said one soldier interviewed by the station. “In this snow, we have to send him off and it’s heart ripping.”

The snow also gave the country’s state-run media fresh material with which to eulogize the dead leader.

“The feathery snowfall reminds the Korean people of the snowy day when the leader was born in the secret camp of Mt. Paektu and of the great revolutionary career that he followed through snowdrifts,” the Korean Central News Agency said in a report Wednesday, referring to a mythical tale of Kim Jong Il’s birth on a sacred mountain.

The North Korean media had attributed a number of supernatural feats and events to Kim over his lifetime.

“All streets in Pyongyang and all towns and villages throughout the country are now inundated with people sweeping away snow before bidding their last farewell to the leader,” the KCNA report said. “They, who spent a sleepless night, missing him, have turned out in all roads covered by him in his lifetime.”

The funeral procession, consisting of dozens of cars, went as far as Kim Il Sung Square, named after the founder of North Korea and father of Kim Jong Il, before returning to the palace. At that point, soldiers fired a 21-shot salute as Kim Jong Un and other officials stood with their heads bowed.

The reclusive nation had revealed no details ahead of time about the funeral of the elder Kim, who was revered as a godlike “dear leader” by his people. He died December 17 — reportedly of a heart attack — after 17 years of repressive rule.

Analysts were parsing the funeral footage for clues on the transition under way within the regime.

The route the procession took appeared to follow that taken for Kim Il Sung’s funeral in 1994, reported Yonhap, the official South Korean news agency. But Kim Jong Il received three fewer shots in the salute than his father did.

The funeral Wednesday gave a prominent role to a third generation of the family: Kim Jong Un, the man designated the “great successor” by the nation’s Worker’s Party.

“This is a very scripted funeral. They’ve expected this for the last several years,” said Lee Chung Min, dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul.

“As you can see by the clockwork procession, the funeral basically signals a new era in North Korea” under Kim Jong Un, Lee said.

Questions have been raised about Kim Jong Un’s ability to take the reins of the communist nation, given his young age — he is thought to be in his late 20s — and relative inexperience.

State news media have described the younger Kim as “Supreme leader” and “Sun of the 21st century,” suggesting he is succeeding in rallying support within the regime’s hierarchy.

“As far as we can see from the TV cameras and from all of their state media projections, everything basically is going according to plan,” Lee said. “Whether Kim Jong Un will be able to remain in power over the longer term — that’s the $64 million question.”

Analysts were also watching the ceremonies to gauge where leading figures stand in the new hierarchy.

Jang Song Taek, who was shown walking behind Kim Jong Un on Wednesday, is expected to serve as a regent for the younger Kim as he builds leadership experience, said Denny Roy, a North Korea analyst at the East-West Center in Honolulu.

Ri Yong Ho, who holds a number of key military and political posts, also took a prominent position in the procession.

The ceremony is to be followed by a memorial on Thursday. The state-run KCNA said when the national memorial service is held, gun volleys will be fired in the capital as well as in provincial seats.

“All the people will observe three minutes’ silence and all locomotives and ships (those on voyage included) will blow whistles and those units with sirens will sound them all at once,” KCNA said.

The seemingly coordinated explosions Thursday struck during the height of morning rush hour, hitting a number of Baghdad’s primarily mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods. Nine car bombs, six roadside bombs and a mortar round all went off in a two-hour period, targeting residential, commercial and government districts in the Iraqi capital, police said.

“The series of special invasions launched, under the guidance of the Ministry of War in the Islamic State of Iraq, to support the weak Sunnis in the prisons of the apostates and to retaliate for the captives who were executed,” the group said on an al Qaeda website.

Iraq’s leadership is dominated by Shiite Muslims, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The country’s Sunni minority held power under former leader Saddam Hussein.

A recent political crisis has raised fears of a return of the sectarian bloodshed in Iraq that ripped the country apart at the height of the war a few years back.

On December 19, al-Maliki, a Shiite, ordered the arrest of the Sunni vice president, a move that escalated sectarian tensions and threatened to collapse Iraq’s fragile power-sharing government.

The political turmoil as well as the recent spate of violence erupted just days after the final U.S. troops withdrew.

Violence in Iraq has declined in recent years but last week’s attacks were among the worst since August when a series of coordinated bombings killed at least 75 people in 17 Iraqi cities.

Loubna, a Homs resident who asked that her full name not be used for security reasons, said she saw security forces shoot tear gas and bullets at protesters at Clock Square in downtown Homs, where thousands gathered. She saw seven injured people, said dozens were arrested, and she and others ran for safety in nearby houses.

Danielle Moussa saw a similar sight in the city’s northeast neighborhood of Khalidiah, where thousands of people gathered. “I saw several get shot and I ran,” he said. Moussa is an opposition activist whose group was working to retrieve bodies.

Loubna said thousands in Khalidiah left for Clock Square because they heard Arab League observers were at the downtown location, also the site of the city’s police headquarters and several government buildings.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group with contacts across the country, reported gunfire near the volatile Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr. It said security forces fired at people attending a funeral for those killed on Monday.

The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition activist network, reported “heavy gunfire and the presence of snipers aiming at everything that moves in the orchards of Baba Amr and Jober.”

Protesters turned up en masse on Tuesday. Around 35,000 protesters turned up in the neighborhood of Khalidiah, the LCC said. The observatory estimated around 20,000 protesters in Khalidiyah and 4,000 in Qusour took to the streets to denounce the regime. Protests also erupted in other neighborhoods. Video said to be from the city showed huge crowds.

The Arab League fact-finding team is visiting Syria this week to assess whether the government is upholding a commitment to end a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters, now in its 10th month. The observers are monitoring an Arab League initiative that calls for President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces to withdraw from cities, release detainees and end all forms of violence.

The monitors arrived amid what opposition members said was a deadly military siege in recent days against protesters in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city.

The observatory said at least 11 tanks withdrew from their locations and repositioned themselves inside government centers in the city. But the observatory called the withdrawal a deceptive “show” for the Arab League monitors. It said the vehicles have repositioned themselves in spots that allow them to return to their previous positions.

“It shows its (the al-Assad regime’s) attempt to circumvent the Arab League mission in order to give credibility to its false stories and deny the crystal-clear fact that there is a huge political crisis and a ‘popular revolution’, by all the standards, by the Syrian people who are trying to regain power, freedom and dignity,” the observatory said on its Facebook page.

Shortly before the observers arrived, some military forces left the Baba Amr neighborhood, said resident and activist Omar al-Humsi. Baba Amr has been wracked with violence recently at the hands of the Syrian regime, opposition activists say.

One video showed Arab League monitors in Baba Amr, with unseen voices saying “where is the justice?” and “this is blood. Come let me show you the blood of my other son. Come let me show you.”

A voiceover on another video of Baba Amr says cars can’t move “anything is targeted” because of security force gunfire.

The Arab League observers “will have access to any place they want, freely,” said a senior official in the league’s advance group to Syria.

“The protocol entails that Syrian security only escorts the monitors to the entrances of the city only. According to the protocol, any party on the ground has the right to contact the monitors as they please,” said the official, who did not want to be identified because he is not authorized to speak with the media.

The team consists of 12 monitors from different nationalities, the senior official said.

The LCC said 33 people killed Tuesday. Among them were 13 in Homs, four in Daraa, four in the Damascus suburbs, three in Hama, three in Idlib, two in Deir Ezzor, and one in Latakia. Plus, the LCC said, three people were killed at Damascus University.

The observatory said a student recently arrested and tortured by the regime opened fire at pro-government students, killing one and wounding four. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said one student was killed and four were wounded in gunfire but didn’t elaborate on whether the incident involved political strife.

SANA also reported on burials of “martyrs” from the army and security forces who were killed by “armed terrorist groups” — a phrase Syria has used frequently to describe those responsible for violence during the uprising.

The news agency said “an armed terrorist group” was responsible for sabotaging a gas pipeline in Homs province on Tuesday, a bombing that halted gas pumping.

Jamal Barakat, a member of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights, said he is part of the Arab League mission. He said Arab League Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby “emphasized the importance of neutrality, objectivity and transparency of our work” during the fact-finding mission.

The mission will be broken up into different groups that will visit different cities, he said. El-Araby said observers will visit several areas including in the provinces of Homs, Idlib, Hama, Damascus, and Daraa.

CNN cannot independently verify opposition accounts of violence or reports of deaths and injuries in Syria. Al-Assad’s government has restricted access to international journalists.

The unrest in Syria began in March when protesters, emboldened by democracy movements in Tunisia and Egypt, called for open elections and an increase in political freedoms and demanded an end to brutal regime actions. The movement quickly spiraled into a call for the ouster of al-Assad as the regime cracked down on peaceful demonstrators.

The uprising launched the Free Syrian Army, a rebel force made up of military defectors, and efforts to create a breakaway government. Other opposition groups, most notably the Syrian National Council, have emerged.

The Arab League has expelled Syria over its crackdown. But many question how effective the visit by league observers will be. Al-Assad has been under enormous international pressure to end the violence from the Arab League, Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.

More than 5,000 people have died since al-Assad began the crackdown in mid-March on anti-government protesters calling for his ouster, the United Nations said earlier this month. But opposition groups and political activists say the toll is much higher. But activist groups, such as Avaaz and LCC, put the toll at more than 6,000.

A total of 1,079 people remain unaccounted for, the Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a statement. Earlier in the week, the disaster council said it had lost count of the number of missing as it tried to assess the scale of the destruction.

The death toll from Tropical Storm Washi, which set off landslides and flash floods that swept away whole villages, has risen to 1,080, according to the council.

The United Nations said Wednesday that the storm has created “huge” humanitarian needs on the island of Mindanao, the scene of the worst devastation. It has made an appeal to raise $28 million to deal with the immediate problems in the area, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced in and around the port cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.

“I was shocked by scale of destruction I saw,” David Carden, the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Philippines told CNN on Thursday after visiting the region. He said it looked as if an “inland tsunami had struck the area.”

Around 675,000 people have been affected by the storm, the disaster council said Friday, with more than 300,000 of them being taken care of at evacuation centers at the moment.

President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines has declared a state of national calamity following the storm.

The disaster council said it estimated the cost of the damage caused by the storm at more than one billion Philippines pesos ($23 million).

“We will guarantee all convenience and safety of the South Koreans during their visit,” said the statement on uriminzokkiri.com, dated Thursday, adding that the North would open to the delegations “all air routes and land routes through Kaesong,” its industrial park, some 45 kilometers (27 miles) north of Seoul.

After Pyongyang announced on Monday the death of Kim, the dictator who had ruled the secretive dictatorship since 1994, Seoul has made a number of gestures as it tries to navigate the uncertainty created by the North’s leadership transition. Pyongyang has named Kim’s youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as the “Great Successor” to his father.

Seoul expressed its sympathy to the North Korean people through a statement on Tuesday. South Korea also said that while it would not send an official delegation to the North, it would allow a limited number of private groups to send delegations to the North if desired.

Pyongyang had already said Thursday that it would welcome a private delegation from Hyundai Asan, a South Korean company with heavy investments in the North, to pay respects to Kim.

The recent moves have been considered a break from the hardline approach to the North that President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea had taken since coming into office in 2008. They contrast with Seoul’s reaction to the death of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung, in 1994 when the conservative South Korean government at the time did not offer its condolences.

The announcement by the North that it would accept delegations came as South Korea’s nuclear envoy held talks in Beijing with a senior Chinese official about how to move forward on the issue of North Korea’s nuclear disarmament.

South Korea’s nuclear point man, Lim Sung-nam, met with Wu Dawei, the Chinese special representative for Korean peninsula affairs, to assess the situation following Kim’s death.

Julian Zapata Espinoza, also known as “Piolin,” was indicted in April in connection with a February attack that killed ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata and wounded ICE Special Agent Victor Avila.

The indictment was unsealed Wednesday as Zapata Espinoza made his initial appearance in federal court in Washington, ICE said in a statement. He was ordered held without bail.

Jaime Zapata was killed and Avila wounded when they were ambushed on a highway in San Luis Potosi. The two were traveling to Mexico City in an armored car with diplomatic plates. They were run off the road and attacked from two vehicles by gunmen who opened fire indiscriminately, authorities said.

It was the first time in 25 years that a U.S. law enforcement agent was killed while on duty in Mexico. Avila was shot twice in the leg, the agency said at the time.

Zapata Espinoza was arrested in February. The United States had asked to extradite him based on his “probable responsibility” in the death of Zapata.

Zapata Espinoza allegedly told authorities that the killers were “confused by the aspects of the vehicle” in which Zapata and Avila were riding. “They thought it was owned by a rival group,” a Mexican official said in May.

He is charged in a four-count indictment with murdering an officer or employee of the United States; one count of attempted murder of an officer of employees of the United States; one count of attempted murder of an internationally protected person; and one count of using, carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence causing death, ICE said in Wednesday’s statement.

Zapata Espinoza’s next court appearance is scheduled for January 25, the agency said.

Police said they also found explosives and propelling charges aboard the British-flagged cargo ship Thor Liberty at the port of Kotka, about 75 miles east of Helsinki.

The Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system manufactured by the U.S. company Raytheon and has been sold to various nations.

The Thor Liberty sailed from Germany on December 13, police said. It was set to sail to Shanghai.

Finnish authorities found the defense materials during a customs search and are looking into whether export laws were violated.

In a televised press conference, Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik also said Seoul will not send a government delegation to North Korea. However, the South will allow bereaved family members of the late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the late Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Mong-hun to visit the North in return for a visit by North Korean delegates to the funerals of the two South Korean figures.

In addition, the South Korean government asked church groups to refrain from lighting Christmas trees near the demilitarized zone between the two countries due to the North’s mourning period. The Christmas trees have been deemed a symbol of psychological warfare, and North Korea threatened in the past to retaliate if the South lights the trees.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un, the son and successor of the recently deceased North Korean leader, viewed his father’s body in Pyongyang on Tuesday, state-run media said, as the world watched for clues on how the leadership transition will play out in the insular dictatorship.

KCNA, the North Korean state television channel, showed Kim Jong Un in front of a glass coffin containing what appeared to be his father’s body.

The son, accompanied by senior government and military officials, participated in a “solemn ceremony” to express “deep condolences with the bitterest grief,” KCNA said in a news report.

Control of the North Korean regime appeared to pass to a third generation of the Kim family Monday after the weekend death of Kim Jong Il, who ruled the reclusive Stalinist state since 1994.

The man known as the “dear leader” died of a heart attack Saturday at age 69, state news outlets announced Monday. The ruling Worker’s Party declared the youngest of his three sons, Kim Jong Un, the “great successor” to his father’s mantle.

Kim Jong Il had led North Korea since his father — the nation’s founder, Kim Il Sung — died at age 82. During his 17 years in power, the country suffered a devastating famine even as it built up its million-strong army, expanded its arsenal of ballistic missiles and became the world’s eighth declared nuclear power.

News of his death spurred South Korea, which remains technically at war with the North more than five decades after their 1950-53 conflict, to put its military on high alert. But across one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told his citizens “to go about their lives” in the meantime.

“For the sake of the future of the Republic of Korea, peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula is more important than anything else. It should not be threatened by what has happened,” he said.

And Kim Young-mok, the South Korean consul in New York, told CNN’s “American Morning” that Seoul’s top priority is to avoid “anything troublesome.”

“I don’t think that North Korea can afford some provocation at this point, but we must make sure that everything is OK,” he said.

North Korea tested nuclear weapons in 2006 and 2009. Monday, it fired a short-range missile over the East Sea — but Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN that U.S. officials have seen no sign of any movement of North Korean forces across the Demilitarized Zone that separates the North and South.

North Korean officers had reported plans for its missile test to the commission that monitors the 1953 armistice, Dempsey said during a trip to Germany. He said no heightened alert has been issued for the nearly 30,000 American troops in South Korea, which has a mutual-defense pact with the United States.

In Washington, the White House said it was monitoring developments and hoped to see the North “take steps to assure the peace and prosperity of its people,” as White House spokesman Jay Carney put it.

“Our focus is on coordinating closely with our allies and partners,” he said. “We have reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to the stability of the Korean Peninsula and the security of our allies, South Korea and Japan.”

And after a meeting with Japan’s Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that Washington has been in “close touch” with the other countries involved in the six-party North Korean nuclear talks, including Russia and China.

“We reiterate our hope for improved relations with the people of North Korea, and remain deeply concerned about their well being,” she said.

U.S. officials had also been in talks with North Korea about the parameters under which food aid would be extended. But U.S. officials say there is not likely to be much engagement with the North Korean government on food aid or any resumption of the six-party talks until the ending of an official mourning period, which runs through next week.

Carney said President Barack Obama was notified of Kim’s death by his chief of staff about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. “I believe it was established in news reports that the North Koreans made that announcement,” Carney said.

On North Korea’s state television network, a tearful anchor broke the news Monday morning. The news was followed by scenes of similarly emotional residents of the capital Pyongyang.

“My leader, what will we do? It’s too much! It’s too much!” one person sobbed. “Leader, please come back. … You cannot leave us. We will always wait for you, leader.”

The network said Kim died of “overwork” while “dedicating his life to the people.” And the official news agency KCNA said Kim suffered “great mental and physical strain” while on a train.

Kim enjoyed a cult-like status in the nation, with millions schooled to accept him as a divine and benevolent father figure.

Laura Ling, one of two American journalists arrested after entering North Korea in March 2009 and sentenced to 12 years hard labor before being released in August 2009 following intervention by former President Bill Clinton, told CNN’s “AC360″ Monday that she was allowed to watch television while in custody.

Nearly every broadcast featured images of Kim as an “otherwordly figure,” she said, recalling her guards were “moved to tears watching their ‘Dear Leader,’ and they talked about how much he was doing (for the people.)” The guards said Kim’s health was failing because he worked so hard for North Koreans, she said.

Her sister, Lisa Ling, filmed a documentary in North Korea while posing as part of a medical team that performed eye surgeries. In a clip from the documentary, a young girl’s bandages are removed and she could see for the first time. “It’s all because of the Great General,” her jubilant father exclaims. “We must bow to our Great General for this.”

There was no independent confirmation of the circumstances reported by the government, which routinely touted the military, technological and artistic genius of the “dear leader” — even claiming he shot 11 holes in one in his first golf outing. But he had appeared frail in his last public appearances, and speculation about his health had persisted for some time.

KCNA acknowledged that Kim had been treated for “cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases for a long period.” He suffered a heart attack on Saturday and couldn’t be saved despite the use of “every possible first-aid measure,” according to the agency.

In Washington, the White House said Obama spoke with Lee on Monday morning. The two leaders agreed to stay in “close touch as the situation develops,” it said.

Several of North Korea’s neighbors, including Japan, the Philippines and leading ally China, offered condolences to the North Korean people on Kim’s death. Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the North Korean embassy in Beijing Tuesday to offer condolences, according to the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.

Monday night, Secretary of State Clinton issued a statement acknowledging the “period of national mourning” in North Korea.

“We are deeply concerned with the well being of the North Korean people and our thoughts and prayers are with them during these difficult times,” the statement said.

“It is our hope that the new leadership of the (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) will choose to guide their nation onto the path of peace by honoring North Korea’s commitments, improving relations with its neighbors and respecting the rights of its people,” Clinton said. “The United States stands ready to help the North Korean people and urges the new leadership to work with the international community to usher in a new era of peace, prosperity and lasting security on the Korean Peninsula.”

Earlier, Christopher Hill, a former U.S. diplomat who led U.S. delegation in nuclear talks with North Korea, said any American statement would require a certain finesse.

“I’d be very careful about issuing condolences on the death of someone who’s really been part and parcel of one of the most tyrannical regimes in the world,” Hill told CNN. “On the other hand, I think something can be done that will show some sympathy to the North Koreans.”

The deceased leader’s body will remain for a week at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, where his father is also interred. Memorial services will follow on December 28 and 29.

Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has visited North Korea eight times, said his initial reaction to Kim’s death was “extreme concern.” He said he is more worried about stability in the region now than before Kim’s death.

“The peninsula is a tinderbox,” said Richardson, who has brokered diplomatic deals in the North. “The issue is, will there be stability in the North Korean leadership? Will they continue their recent efforts of engaging South Korea and the United States over food aid, over nuclear talks?”

Richardson said South Korea was right to go on alert — “but I think now’s the time to just lie low, watch things as they develop.”

During Kim’s tenure, the North was largely closed off to outside influences and fearful of threats from its neighbors. At the same time, it also sought international aid after extensive famines contributed to the deaths of at least 250,000 people, according to the North Korean government. Outside analysts suggested the toll could have been 10 times higher.

Both North Korea and South Korea have shown signs of concession in recent years. But relations between the two rival nations soured yet again when the South accused the North of launching an attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians.

And South Korea says a North Korean torpedo attack was to blame for the 2010 sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, which left 46 Southern sailors dead. The North has denied the accusation.

Now the question is what path his untested son, believed to be either 27 or 28, will take the country. He was educated in Switzerland as a boy, and named a four-star general in 2010.

“We really don’t know substantively where he stands on anything,” said Mike Chinoy, a senior fellow at the U.S.-China Institute.

Kim Young-mok said the North has built up its military and pursued a nuclear bomb “while children are starving.”

“This causes a lot of human disasters,” he said. “So what worries me is not this Kim Jong Un’s personality, but the priority of the North Korean leadership.”

After the Cheonan incident, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he feared the younger Kim may have needed to “earn his stripes” with Pyongyang’s military establishment by launching further provocations.

And Hill said while the “great successor” is “definitely not ready for prime time,” he is unlikely to take major steps before consolidating his power.

“I think we’re kind of shifting, at least for the time being, to a sort of military junta,” he said, adding, “I would expect that they will try to show a maximum of stability as they go through what’s obviously going to be a very difficult and dicey time for them.”

Security forces wielding batons, firearms and tear gas attacked defiant protesters Tuesday on the fifth consecutive day of clashes in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, witnesses told CNN.

Sherif Barakat, a businessman, heard machine gun fire early in the morning and saw the unrest from the balcony of his home above Tahrir Square. He saw security forces charge, firing tear gas and beating people with batons.

“Both sides exchanged rock-pelting until the military withdrew,” he said. “They kept the protesters at bay far from the epicenter of the clashes at Sheikh Rihan Street close to the Ministry of Interior for two hours until they reinforced the cement wall erected two days back with more blocks, then they withdrew.”

Nazly Hussein, an activist, said the forces stormed the square before dawn with a “startling” amount of firepower.
Cairo: Graphic images draw condemnation
Egyptian protests turn violent

“I noticed protesters are not too scared of the firepower,” Hussein said. But at the same time, “they are terrified from getting caught and tortured.”

Ahmed Hamdi, a field medic, claimed that two people — a doctor and a student — were shot and killed. But Adel Al Dawi, a Health Ministry spokesman, could not confirm the casualties.

“It usually takes several hours before we get the official casualty report from the morgues or the hospitals. I know of five people who suffered gunshot wounds during the attack and were transferred to hospitals,” Al Dawi said.

Demonstrators and security forces have been battling since Friday in Tahrir, the epicenter of the uprising that brought down Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year. At least 14 deaths in the latest spate of violence were confirmed as of Monday.

Several hundred women kicked off a “Million Woman” march originally billed to highlight regime violence against female demonstrators.

It started in Tahrir Square, moved through nearby streets and grew to as many as 1,500 to 2,000 people, both men and women outraged over the treatment of all protesters.

Many held up pictures of abused people, and they called for regime change. Men vigilant about assaults formed a protective ring around the female marchers.

The march occurred as shocking images of brutality went viral across the Internet intensified the crisis in Egypt, the world’s most populous Arab nation. One video showed a military police officer stomping on a woman’s exposed stomach over the weekend, a video that sparked outrage. Protesters on Tuesday held placards with images of that women.

Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, released a statement Monday condemning what she called “vicious” and “brutal” assaults filmed over the weekend.

“The ruthless violence being used against unarmed women protesters is especially shocking and cannot be left unpunished,” Pillay said.

Another video showed Islam Abdel Hafiz, a boy allegedly shot by the military. Field medics attempted to remove the bullet from his motionless bleeding body before transferring him to the hospital.

Al Dawi said he visited the boy in the operating room and met his parents.

“I hope he survives, as the bullet seems to have caused some serious internal damage,” Al Dawi told CNN.

Protesters are now demanding that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces swiftly hand authority over to an elected civilian government. Egypt has been conducting parliamentary elections and the military has said it plans to transfer power after elections are completed next year.

There have already been two rounds of voting for the lower house of Parliament, and voting for the upper house will begin at the end of January and go into early March. There are plans for the election of a president in June.

Newly elected Parliament members, intellectuals and academics weighed in on the violence Monday. The 40 demonstrators held a sit-in in front of the Supreme Court. They demanded that officials involved in the killing of protesters be tried, and they called for the military to hand over authority to civilians on January 25, the anniversary of the Egyptian revolution.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Revolutionary Alliance, an opposition bloc of secular and religious parties, held a news conference to display images and testimonials about the violence, an event that served as a refutation of a Monday news briefing by the military. The alliance has not taken part in the election.

“Our press conference challenges the press conference announced by the military yesterday which was an utter joke, with all the blatant lies and fabrications it contained. That presser displayed their arrogance and continued mismanagement of the interim period that has led us to the crisis of witnessing dead people everyday,” said alliance member Rami Shath.

The military displayed videos of young boys who confessed that they received money from men who asked them to throw Molotov cocktails and rocks at security forces and burn government buildings such as the Cabinet. Many journalists attending the news conference applauded Gen. Adel Amar after his speech.

“The military fabricated these videos and forced the young boys to give these testimonials. They also invited local military correspondents loyal to the establishment that were seen clapping away after the press conference, which was broadcast live on state TV. It is a propaganda move to bury the revolution and portray us as paid thugs with no political horizon,” Shath added.

Activists have filed complaints about senior government officials to the Egyptian prosecutor’s office. Adel Saeed, the official spokesman of the general prosecutor, told CNN that two judges from the appeals court have been appointed to investigate the “intricate details” of the clashes and file a report to the prosecutor and the Justice Ministry.

“There are protesters and activists dying every day,” Noor Noor, the son of presidential candidate Ayman Nour, told CNN Tuesday. The son filed a report under his own name against Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

“Someone has to be accountable. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has failed to govern the interim period on both the military and political level,” Noor said.

Monday was the fourth day that pro-democracy demonstrators battled Egyptian security forces, their anger stoked by images of a military police officer stomping on a woman’s exposed stomach over the weekend.

The U.N.’s Pillay said she believes the individuals involved in the assaults must be arrested and prosecuted.

“These are life-threatening and inhuman acts that cannot possibly be justified under the guise of restoration of security or crowd control,” Pillay said. She called for an impartial and independent investigation into “all instances of abuse and violent repression against protesters.”