Sri Lanka Free From 136,000 Tamils:All ethnic-minority Tamil detainees will be freed from government camps on December 1, a senior Sri Lankan official has said.

Some 300,000 war-displaced Tamils were forced into camps after fleeing the final months of the government’s decades-long war with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended in May.

The Tamils are held against their will in overcrowded camps with poor sanitation. More than half were released in recent months amid pressure from rights group and foreign governments.

Authorities say nearly 136,000 people remain detained.

Basil Rajapaksa, a senior adviser to his brother, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said the camp’s residents will be free to return to their original villages after December 1.

LONDON: Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband says the Afghanistan government would collapse within weeks if NATO troops left the country right away.

Miliband said insurgent forces would quickly overrun Afghan troops if the international community pulled out.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has said he expects Afghan forces to be able to control the country within five years. Miliband said the international community would stay as long as needed and not stick to “artificial timetables.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told lawmakers last week that Britain remains committed to the Afghanistan mission — despite some public calls for troops to be withdrawn amid a mounting death toll.