On 1 September 1939, Hitler unleashed hell on Poland with the support of the Soviet Union. It ended the following month on 6 October when Germany and the Soviet Union annexed and carved up Poland for themselves. It was the beginning of WWII.
On August 22 of 1939, Hitler gathered his generals together to explain what was about to take place [...]

Xe, the US-based security firm formerly known as Blackwater, is under investigation by the US justice department, for trying to bribe Iraqi officials.
According to the New York Times, the attempted pay-offs were made in hope of securing contracts after a deadly shooting in 2007, which eventually led to the companys expulsion.
The US justice departments fraud section opened the inquiry late last year to determine whether Blackwater [...]

Al Jazeera has a report about the state of water distribution between Israel and the Palestinian Territories:
Israel is denying Palestinians adequate access to clean, safe water while allowing almost unlimited supplies to Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, human rights group Amnesty International has said.
“Swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements… stand in stark contrast [...]

The following images from Sri Lanka include a few from within the war zone during the last days of the civil war and the defeat of the Tamil Tigers (they are the images towards the end). We also have images from the war zone that we chose not to include due to their graphic nature – they are heart breaking. The [...]

The following is reprinted with permission from Reuters AlertNet. Images used in this article were obtained from the author and are used with permission from the author. The views expressed in this article are the author’s alone.
Through our partner in Sri Lanka, TEAR Fund is one of the few organisations with good access to those suffering through displacement.
Written by: A [...]

TEAR Fund has recently approved a sum of money to be sent to our partner in Pakistan to provide assistance to the many people who are now refugees after fleeing the Swat Valley area to the fighting between government forces and the Taliban.
Pakistan is a country we are monitoring closely.

In this edition of the Podcast, with the Sri Lankan government declaring the defeat of the Tamil Tigers and the Red Cross pulling back from it’s aid operations with the victims of recent events due to the government restricting access, we thought we would catch up with Ian McInnes, one of our programme officers and the former director of our [...]

The situation in Pakistan is worsening for civilians from the Swat valley area with thousands fleeing after the government called for an evacuation so it could step up the level of its attacks against the Taliban.
With the latest evacuation coupled with people who have already left the area since August, the number of internally displaced people (IDP) now stands at over [...]

In this edition of the Podcast we talk to Ian McInnes, former country director for World Concern in Sri Lanka, TEAR Fund’s partner in the area. We discuss the current situation and what TEAR Fund is involved with.

This just appeared in the Guardian UK:
Hundreds of civilians are being killed or seriously injured in artillery and gun attacks as the Sri Lankan army attempts to finish off the last Tamil Tiger rebels trapped in a shrinking pocket of land.
Injured civilians lucky enough to get out have told of carnage in this so-called “no-fire zone” – a 17 sq [...]

There is a book coming out in New Zealand that looks at 5 Christian perspectives on the Palestinian/Israeli issue and puts them in conversation with each other. One of the 5 contributors is Steve Tollestrup, the Executive Director of TEAR Fund. In this edition of the Podcast we chat with Steve about the book, the Christian perspective of the issue [...]

Tens of thousands of people, trapped in ’safe zones’ in the north eastern Wanni region are at increased risk from the escalation in attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, Amnesty International said today.
via ReliefWeb » Document » Sri Lanka: Thousands of civilians under attack as fighting intensifies.
TEAR Fund’s Easter Focus this [...]

The following was written by Kristin Jack, team leader for Servants Cambodia and an eyewitness to the violent eviction of slum residents and the demolition of their homes that took place on Saturday January 24th.
The history of Cambodia is littered with tragedies brought about by the oppression of the weak by the powerful. Power, and it’s abuse, seem to be a [...]

A first step has been made towards peace in Darfur with an agreement of “good intention” being signed between the government of Sudan and the main rebel group from the western Darfur region.
The agreement comes after negotiations hosted by Qatar and jointly sponsored by Qatar, the United Nations, African Union and Arab League and they hold the hope that this will [...]

Article by: Ian McInnes – Country Director World Concern Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s three decade old conflict between the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and the Sri Lankan Government is at its fiercest. 70,000 have already lost their lives in a separatist struggle for control of ‘Eelam’, a self-designated homeland for Tamils by the LTTE. Having lost control of the East of the [...]

God speaking to Abraham – “And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:8 (NRSV)
Before we go any further, it is important to point out that many English translations of this passage [...]