procurement
programmes, like the Joint Strike Fighter, will be slowed down. The military's global focus will shift with greater emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region and the withdrawal of two brigades from Europe.
A former Guatemalan military leader Efrain Rios Montt has appeared before a court in Guatemala for a preliminary
hearing
that could lead to him being charged with genocide. He was in power in the early 1980s when some of the worst atrocities of Guatemala's long civil war were committed. Many indigenous Mayans were massacred as part of government efforts to defeat left-wing rebels. Mr Rios Montt denies responsibility.
The Senate in Argentina has been discussing the future of the Falkland Islands. The Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has rejected an accusation by the British Prime Minister David Cameron that her government has a colonialist attitude to the islands, over which Argentina maintains its claim of
sovereignty
.
The Arab League is to ask the United Nations Security Council on Monday to back its plan to end the violence in Syria. On Sunday, the league called for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to
step down
and hand power to his deputy. In Syria itself, activists say there have been renewed clashes between the security forces and anti-government protesters near Damascus. Clashes were also reported in Deraa, south of the capital.
This is the World News coming to you from the BBC.