WASHINGTON, Jan 23 – A senior U.S. military commander said on Wednesday he did not expect the Taliban to mount a major offensive in eastern Afghanistan this spring, but experts warned of rising violence and a stronger insurgency.

A British soldier was killed and five were injured by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan yesterday, the Ministry of Defence revealed today.

Iran’s supreme leader Monday reversed a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and ordered him to implement a law supplying natural gas to remote villages amid rising dissatisfaction with the president’s performance.