By Arshad Mohammed and Erika Solomon AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States and its allies are ready to increase support for Syria's rebels if President Bashar al-Assad refuses to discuss a political solution to his country's civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday. Rebels called for reinforcements to combat President Bashar al-Assad's forces, which have launched an offensive in recent days against a strategic town backed by Assad's allies from Lebanon's powerful Shi'ite militia Hezbollah. ...

By Tom Perry and Yousri Mohamed CAIRO/ISMAILIA (Reuters) - Seven Egyptian security men kidnapped by Islamist militants in Sinai last week were freed on Wednesday and President Mohamed Mursi vowed to pursue a crackdown on lawlessness in the desert peninsula. The abduction underlined the threat posed by jihadists who have exploited a security vacuum that opened up in the isolated Sinai after the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. The state has struggled to restore order there since. ...

By Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even as the United States accuses China of military espionage and worries about Beijing's more strident posture in the Asia-Pacific region, the ties between the armed forces of the two nations have been getting closer. Direct contact between China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) and some of its potential adversaries has increased dramatically in the last two years. The first major public sign of the thaw was a joint concert by the U.S. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron has called a meeting of his government's emergency Cobra security committee after the killing of a man in south London, his office said on Wednesday. Britain's government convenes Cobra meetings only to deal with incidents that have implications for national security. Media reports said a British soldier was killed in the incident in the Woolwich district in the southeast of the British capital. ...