INSAF MALAYSIA

Penerima Zakat

2012-01-31T14:58:00.002+08:00

“Artinya : Sesungguhnya zakat-zakat itu hanyalah untuk orang-orang fakir, orang-orang miskin, pengurus-pengurus zakat, para muallaf yang dibujuk hatinya, untuk (memerdekakan) budak, orang-orang yang berhutang, untuk jalan Allah dan orang-orang yang sedang dalam perjalanan, sebagai sesuatu ketetapan yang diwajibkan Allah. Dan Allah Maha Mengetahui lagi Mahabijaksana” [At-Taubah : 60]

Penjelasan tentang kedelapan penerima tersebut adalah sebagai berikut.

Orang-orang Fakir - Orang fakir ialah orang yang tidak mempunyai harta untuk memenuhi kebutuhannya dan kebutuhan orang-orang yang ia tanggung. Kebutuhan itu berupa makanan, atau minuman, atau pakaian, atau tempat tinggal, kendati ia mempunyai harta se-nishab.
Orang Miskin - Bisa jadi orang miskin itu kefakirannya lebih ringan, atau lebih berat daripada orang fakir. Hanya saja hukum keduanya adalah satu dalam segala hal. Rasulullah Shallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam pernah mendefinisikan orang miskin dalam hadits-haditsnya, misalnya beliau bersabda. “Artinya : Orang miskin bukanlah orang yang berkeliling kepada manusia dan bisa disuruh pulang oleh sesuap makanan, atau dua suap makanan, atau satu kurma, atau dua kurma. Namun orang miskin ialah orang yang tidak mempunyai kekayaan yang membuatnya kaya, tidak diketahui kemudian perlu diberi sedekah, dan tidak meminta-minta manusia” [Diriwayatkan Bukhari]
Pengurus Zakat - Yaitu pemungut zakat, atau orang-orang yang mengumpulkannya, atau orang yang menakarnya, atau penulisnya di dokumen. Petugas Zakat diberi upah dari zakat kendati orang kaya, karena Rasulullah Shallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam bersabda. “Artinya : Sedekah (zakat) tidak halal bagi orang kaya kecuali bagi lima orang petugasnya, orang yang membeli zakat dengan hartanya, orang yang berhutang, pejuang di jalan Allah atau orang miskin yang bersedekah dengannya kemudian menghadiahkannya kepada orang kaya” [Diriwayatkan Ahmad]
Orang-orang yang dibujuk hatinya - Yaitu orang-orang yang lemah ke-Islamannya dan orang yang berpengaruh di kaummnya. Ia diberi zakat untuk membujuk hatinya dan mengarahkannya kepada Islam dengan harapan ia bermanfaat bagi orang banyak atau kejahatannya terhenti. Zakat juga boleh diberikan kepada orang kafir yang diharapkan bisa beriman atau kaumnya bisa beriman. Ia diberi zakat untuk mengajak mereka kepada Islam dan membuat mereka cinta Islam. atah ini bisa diperluas distribusinya kepada semua pihak yang dapat mewujudkan kemaslahatan bagi Islam dan kaum Muslimin, misalnya para wartawan atau penulis.
Memerdekakan Budak - Yang dimaksud dengan point ini ialah bahwa seorang Muslim mempunyai budak, kemudian dibeli dari uang zakat dan dimerdekakan di jalan Allah. Atau ia mempunyai budak mukatib (budak yang membebaskan dirinya dengan membayar sejumlah uang kepada pemiliknya), kemudian ia diberi uang zakat yang bisa menutup kebutuhan pembayaran dirinya, hingga ia bisa menjadi orang merdeka.
Orang-orang yang Berhutang - Yaitu orang-orang yang berhutang tidak di jalan kemaksiatan kepada Allah, Rasul-Nya, dan mendapatkan kesulitan untuk membayarnya. Ia diberi zakat untuk melunasi hutangnya, karena Rasulullah Shallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam bersabda. “Artinya : Meminta-minta tidak diperbolehkan kecuali bagi tiga orang : Orang yang sangat Miskin, atau orang yang berhutang banyak, atau orang yang menanggung diyat (ganti rugi karena luka, atau pembunuhan)” [Diriwayatkan At-Timridzi dan ia meng-hasan-kannya]
Di jalan Allah - Yaitu amal perbuatan yang mengantarkan kepada keridhaan Allah Ta’ala dan Surga-Nya, terutama jihad untuk meninggikan kalimat-Nya. Jadi penjuang di jalan Allah Ta’ala diberi zakat kendati dia orang kaya. Jatah ini berlaku umum bagi seluruh kemaslahatan-kemaslahatan umum agama, misalnya pembangunan rumah-rumah sakit, pembangunan sekolah-sekolah, dan pembangunan panti asuhan anak-anak yatim. Tapi yang harus didahulukan ialah yang terkait dengan jihad, misalnya penyiapan senjata, perbekalan, pasukan, dan seluruh kebutuhan jihad di jalan Allah Ta’ala.
Ibnu Sabil - Yaitu musafir yang terputus dari negerinya yang jauh. Ia diberi zakat yang bisa menutupi kebutuhannya di tengah-tengah keterasingannya kendati ia kaya di negerinya. Ia diberi zakat karena ia terancam miskin di perjalanannya dan ini dengan syarat tidak ada orang yang meminjaminya uang yang bisa memenuhi kebutuhannya. Jika ia memungkinkan bisa pinjam uang kepada seseorang, ia wajib meminjamnya dan tidak berhak diberi zakat selagi ia kaya di negerinya.

Kemudian, saya ringkaskan Catatan tambahan dari Syaikh Abu Bakar Jabir Al-Jazairi.

Catatan.

[1]. Jika seorang muslim menyerahkan zakat hartanya kepada kelompok manapun di antara kedelapan kelompok di atas, maka sah. Hanya saja, ia harus memberikannya kepada pihak yang paling membutuhkan dan paling besar kebutuhannya. Jika zakatnya berupa uang yang banyak, kemudian ia membagi-bagikannya kepada masing-masing kedelapan kelompok tersebut, maka itu baik sekali.

[2]. Orang muslim tidak boleh memberikan zakatnya kepada orang yang wajib ia nafkahi, misalnya kedua orang tuanya, atau anak-anaknya, dan seterusnya, serta isteri-isterinya, karena ia berkewajiban menafkahi mereka.

[5]. Zakat tidak boleh diberikan kepada orang kafir, atau orang fasik seperti orang yang meninggalkan shalat, orang yang melecehkan syariat Islam, dan lain sebagainya, karena Rasulullah Shallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam bersabda. “Artinya : Zakat diambil dari orang-orang kaya mereka, dan dikembalikan kepada orang-orang fakir mereka”.

Maksudnya ialah zakat diambil dari orang-orang kaya kaum Muslimin dan dikembalikan kepada orang-orang fakir kaum Muslimin. Zakat juga tidak boleh diberikan kepada orang kaya dan orang kuat yang bisa kerja, karena Rasulullah Shallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam bersabda. “Artinya : Orang kaya tidak mempunyai bagian terhadap zakat dan juga orang kuat yang bisa kerja” [Diriwayatkan Ahmad]

Maksudnya orang yang bisa kerja sesuai dengan kadar kecukupannya.

[6]. Zakat tidak boleh dipindahkan dari satu negeri ke negeri lain yang jauhnya sejauh perjalanan yang dibenarkan melakukan shalat qashar, atau lebih, karena Rasulullah Shallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam bersabda.”Artinya : Zakat itu dikembalikan kepada orang-orang fakir mereka” Para ulama mengecualikan jika disuatu negeri tidak ada orang-orang fakir atau suatu negeri mempunyai kebutuhan yang sangat besar, maka zakat boleh di pindah ke negeri yang di dalamnya terdapat orang-orang fakir. Tugas ini dilaksanakan imam (pemimpin) atau wakilnya.

[8] Zakat tidak sah kecuali dengan meniatkannya. Jika seseorang membayar zakat tanpa meniatkannya, maka tidak sah, karena Rasulullah Shallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam bersabda.”Artinya : Sesungguhnya semua amal perbuatan itu harus dengan niat, dan setiap orang itu sesuai dengan niatnya”.

Jadi orang yang membayar zakat harus meniatkan zakat sebagai kewajiban dari hartanya dan memaksudkannya kepada keridhaan Allah, sebab ikhlas adalah syarat diterimanya semua ibadah, dan karena Allah Ta’ala berfirman.”Artinya : Padahal mereka tidak disuruh kecuali supaya menyembah Allah dengan memurnikan ketaatan kepada-Nya dalam (menjalankan) agama dengan lurus” [Al-Bayyinah : 5]

2012-01-27T09:47:00.000+08:00

We make a LIVING by what we GET
We make a LIFE by what we GIVE
- Sir Winston Churchill

GONG XI FA CAI

2012-01-11T17:53:00.000+08:00

Penasihat Insaf Malaysia Tan Sri Dr.Abdul Hamid Othman Meninggal

2011-12-25T21:37:00.002+08:00

Kuala Lumpur 24hb.Dec.2011 - Tan Sri Dr Abdul Hamid Othman bekas Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, 72 tahun, meninggal dunia semalam dipercayai akibat serangan angin ahmar. Allahyarham yang bertugas sebagai Penasihat Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd meninggal dunia kira-kira jam 4.45 petang ketika sedang menjalankan urusan kerja di pejabatnya di Maju Junction di sini.

Pegawai peribadinya, Nor Azhar Yusof, berkata sebelum serangan itu beliau kelihatan sihat namun tiba-tiba mengalami kesukaran bernafas.
“Kakitangan pejabat memanggil saya apabila melihat Allahyarham mengalami sesak nafas dan kami semua cuba memberi bantuan kecemasan termasuk bantuan pernafasan namun lima minit kemudian Tan Sri telah tiada.
“Allahyarham mempunyai sejarah penyakit lain iaitu sakit jantung dan diabetis,” katanya ketika dihubungi.
Beliau berkata jenazah Abdul Hamid dibawa pulang ke kediamannya di Taman Tenaga, Batu 9, Jalan Puchong. Penasihat Agung Pusat Kebajikan Wanita dan Keluarga (KEWAJA) itu meninggalkan seorang isteri, Puan Sri Jamilah Mohd Said, 68, seorang anak, Wafi Nazrin serta lima orang cucu.
Allahyarham yang dilahirkan pada 21 Julai 1939 di Kampung Kemelong, Mukim Sik, Kedah pernah mengetuai Pusat Islam Malaysia di Jabatan Perdana Menteri sebagai Ketua Pengarah, Bahagian Hal Ehwal Islam.
Abdul Hamid memegang jawatan sebagai Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri dari 1995 sehingga 1999. Sebelum itu pada tahun 1990 beliau dilantik sebagai Timbalan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri.
Pada 2001, Abdul Hamid dilantik sebagai Penasihat Agama kepada Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dan kemudian Penasihat Agama kepada Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dari 2005 hingga 2009. – BERNAMA

9 First Aid Skills That Can Really Save a Life

2011-11-17T21:09:00.000+08:00

The Skills You Need to Have When Seconds Count

There are those mommy first aid skills where a Band-Aid and a kiss are all that's needed to make everything better. We can fix a cut finger or ice a twisted ankle or staunch a bloody nose, the skills we learn almost by osmosis from watching Mom or Grandma.

Then there's stepping up during an emergency, the difference between life or death.
Saving lives is a mindset. It's knowing how to do what you need to do and not being afraid to act. With the exception of using an Epi-Pen, nothing on this list requires special tools, just your brain, your hands and your quick action.

1. CPR

It doesn't get any more deadly than dead. Cardiac arrest is what paramedics call the condition that is commonly known as death: the heart is no longer pumping blood. Whatever the cause, there is only one outcome if cardiac arrest is not treated with CPR - the victim stays dead.?

2. Use an Epi-Pen

Anaphylaxis is a severe allergy that kills hundreds of people every year. Whether the allergy is to bees, peanuts, shellfish or antibiotics, anaphylaxis quickly progresses to dead if left untreated. The best way to stop anaphylaxis in its tracks is to use an Epi-Pen.

3. Heimlich Maneuver

When somebody's choking on a piece of filet mignon, quick action is all that might stand between a minor dinner embarrassment and horrible death. Are you ready to force the offending meat out of the airway with a Heimlich Maneuver?

4. Treat a Choking Infant

Babies are built differently than bigger kids and adults. So, for the under 12 month crowd, getting something out of the airway has more options, which is good, since these guys are much more likely to have something in there in the first place. When your curious little one gets a chunk of whatever caught in his pipe, do you know how to treat a choking baby?

5. Stop Bleeding

With two steps, almost all bleeding can be controlled: pressure and elevation. Unfortunately, few things are as scary to us puny humans as letting our life-force leak out. In the midst of a nightmare, can you stop bleeding?

6. Treat Shock

After too much blood has been lost, the next step is too little blood pressure. We hear lots about how bad high blood pressure is, but while high blood pressure will kill you in a few years, low blood pressure can kill you in a few minutes. If you weren't able to stop bleeding fast enough, you'd better be able to treat shock.

7. Treat Heat Stroke

The most important step in treating heat stroke is recognizing heat stroke. Hot, dry and confused in the middle of a hot day is a combination that should make you shudder, then make you call 911 and start throwing ice on the victim.

8. Treat Low Blood Sugar

As bad as low blood pressure is low blood sugar. This is one of those special situations that doesn't affect everyone, but since diabetics don't always have their diagnosis written on them (some do, on a bracelet) it's a skill you should know. For most of us, too much sugar is a problem we suffer with all too often, but too little blood sugar is a killer. Everyone should know how to treat low blood sugar.

9. Treat Hypothermia

Like heat stroke, winning the battle against hypothermia starts with knowing hypothermia when you see it -- or feel it. Warming a victim of hypothermia is arguably the easiest skill on this list, but that doesn't make it any less important. In cold weather, you should know how to treat hypothermia.

Turkey Accepts Offers of Earthquake Aid

2011-10-27T20:06:00.000+08:00

After a third night of freezing conditions in southeastern Turkey, hope of finding more survivors from Sunday's powerful earthquake is beginning to fade. But with winter approaching and thousands of people homeless, fear is growing of a greater crisis facing the area.

Two more people have been found alive by rescue workers in their collapsed homes. A teacher and a young student were pulled out of the rubble on Wednesday. The student was found by rescuers using sophisticated micro-cameras that penetrated deep into the collapsed building.

But with powerful aftershocks continuing and sub-freezing temperatures falling on the region for a fourth night, hopes of finding more survivors are fading. The hard decision to turn search-and-rescue into a clearance operation is now looming, and the risk of disease is growing. There are already reports of outbreaks of diarrhea among children.

The government has now accepted offers of help from 30 countries around the world, including Israel. Relations between Israel and Turkey have been strained since Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last year, killing nine Turkish activists.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul welcomed the help. He says nearly 50 presidents called with offers of help and that the Foreign Ministry will reach out as soon as it is determined there is a need. President Gul says Turkey did not initially make a call for the international community's help but later reversed its decision.

Criticism has been steadily growing over the government's rejection of most international help. Turkey had initially accepted offers of help only from Iran and Azerbaijan, which border the quake-stricken region. Following the quake, Ankara had at first said it was capable of dealing with the crisis on its own.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan strongly attacked those who criticized his government's handling of the situation. He says the earthquake in and around the city of Van is a litmus test and that critics of his government are provoking the region's people. He says the critics do not care about the dead, those trapped under the rubble, or the collapsed houses. Mr. Erdogan says they are only trying to profit from the situation.

Analysts say the reason behind Ankara's eventual decision to accept aid is the growing concern that the region could be facing an even bigger crisis.

The 7.2 magnitude quake destroyed thousands of apartment blocks and leveled numerous villages where the houses are made of clay and mud. With winter fast approaching, authorities are under increasing pressure to provide for those who have lost their homes.

While tent cities and field kitchens have been built in several towns and cities, officials have admitted they underestimated the need for tents. Observers say there is now a growing awareness on the part of the government that it is a race against time to accommodate the thousands of homeless before winter sets in.

Program Kesihatan BAKAT - Bantuan Kemanusiaan Orang Asli Tasik Chini

2011-10-25T16:42:00.002+08:00

Insaf Malaysia akan mengadakan Program Kesihatan BAKAT (Bantuan Kemanusiaan Orang Asli Tasik Chini) pada 19 – 20hb. November 2011 di 5 buah perkampungan orang asli iaitu di Kg. Ulu Gumum, Kg. Cendahan, Kg. Belai, Kg. Tg. Puput dan Kg. Melai yang terletak di Tasik Chini, Pekan, Pahang.

Program kesihatan tersebut adalah merangkumi siri mobile clinic dimana rawatan yang diberikan adalah percuma khas untuk penduduk yang daif di perkampungan orang asli tersebut. Pasukan Insaf Malaysia yang terdiri daripada Pegawai Perubatan, Penolong Pegawai Perubatan dan pakar logistik yang berpengalaman akan bersama-sama dengan PERKIM di dalam menjayakan program ini.

Sementara itu, 2 orang pakar makanan (Food Programme) dan 2 orang pakar di dalam Air Bersih akan turut serta dalam program ini bagi membuat tinjauan di kawasan-kawasan tersebut.

Turkey earthquake: rescuers frantically search for survivors

2011-10-25T11:48:00.000+08:00

Digging continues at dozens of collapsed buildings in Ercis and Van as death toll after 7.2-magnitude quake rises to more than 200 -

Rescue teams in eastern Turkey are working frantically to pull more survivors from the wreckage of dozens of collapsed buildings following an earthquake in which at least 279 people were killed and hundreds of others injured or trapped.There was increasing concern for tens of thousands of people forced to spend the night outdoors in near-freezing temperatures in the mountainous Van region, as their damaged homes were shaken by a succession of aftershocks.

"It is a very urgent situation," Hakki Erskoy,, a disaster manager for the Turkish Red Crescent, said, adding that his organisation was dealing with 40,000 homeless people, adding. "Right now, we are facing a race against time to provide shelter for people."

Sunday's 7.2-magnitude quake had the most severe effect in Ercis, a town of around 75,000 people, where an estimated 80 buildings collapsed. The provincial capital, Van, about 60 miles to the south, experienced substantial damage as well, and the situation was bad in many surrounding villages. According to the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who toured the region by helicopter, virtually all mud-brick homes had collapsed. He told a late-night press conference in Van: "Because the buildings are made of mud-brick, they are more vulnerable to quakes. I must say that almost all buildings in such villages are destroyed."

He returned to Ankara to chair a cabinet meeting about the disaster.

While death tolls given by government ministers varied, the number of dead is likely to rise substantially as bodies are removed from the rubble. Rescue teams used diggers and cranes to remove bigger pieces of debris before going through wreckage using picks, bars and their bare hands to find survivors, working through the night under floodlights. One report said 24 people had been pulled from rubble alive in two hours during the first morning after the quake. While this slowed, there were still successes.

Rescuers were often led to survivors via mobile phone calls. A man, Yalcin Akay, was saved from a collapsed six-storey building in Ercis after he called an emergency line and described his location, the Anatolia news agency reported. Three others, including two children, were also rescued from the building.

Witnesses watched a woman and her daughter being painstakingly released from beneath a concrete slab. "I'm here, I'm here," the woman called to rescuers.

Others had to wait and hope. One woman at another building in Ercis said she had spoken to a fellow teacher six hours after the quake. "She's my friend, and she called me to say that she's alive and she's stuck in the rubble near the stairs of the building," she said. "She told me she was wearing red pyjamas." One particularly urgent search was centred on a collapsed student dormitory in Ercis. "University students are said to be living here," Mustafa Bilgin, a mine rescue expert, said. "We don't know how many of them are still inside – we've reached their computers, clothing, but we did not see anyone."

Despite worries about the ease with which so many tall buildings collapsed – poor construction standards have been blamed for the high death tolls in previous quakes in Turkey – the interior minister, Idris Naim Sahin, said the final tally may be lower than initially feared. "There could be around 100 people [still in the rubble]. It could be more or it could be less," he said. "But we are not talking about thousands."

The Red Crescent has set up tented relief camps in two stadiums in Ercis, also distributing tents to those who prefer to remain near their homes. It was also handing out supplies such as blankets, sleeping bags and heaters.

Another task, Erskoy said, was providing emotional support for the bereaved or those waiting to hear about the missing. "This is very difficult work," he said. "We're working with psychologists to provide the best support that we can."

Some significant relief efforts were being organised via social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Erhan Çelik, a journalist for Turkey's Kanal 7 TV station, passed to his 22,000 Twitter followers an appeal for people to offer accommodation to those made homeless. Within a few hours, he said, he had received 17,000 emails in response.

There was also a darker side. Van province has a majority Kurdish population and is a centre of support for the banned separatist Kurdish Workers' party (PKK).

A Turkish TV host triggered protests after asking why Kurds who sometimes battled the police should expect help from officers. Çelik said he had received abusive replies after tweeting condolences in Kurdish as well as Turkish.

A number of countries have offered assistance with both relief aid and search and rescue efforts. Erdogan said Turkey was able to cope for the time being.

Thailand - Many children dying and jobs being lost in Asian floods says UNISDR

2011-10-22T00:05:00.000+08:00

International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

BANGKOK, 21 October 2011

The floods which have affected eight million people across South East Asia, and which now threaten Bangkok, have underlined shortcomings in disaster risk reduction with many children drowning because they cannot swim, and thousands of workers now unemployed because of poorly located manufacturing plants, the Head of the UN’s Bangkok Office for Disaster Reduction, UNISDR, Jerry Velasquez said today.

He continued: “We are particularly concerned to learn about the high numbers of children dying in these floods which was a concern raised by children themselves when over 600 were interviewed for the new Children’s Charter on Disaster Risk Reduction which was the focus of International Disaster Reduction Day on October 13.”

Over 200 children are reported to have died in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand out of an estimated total of 745 flood-related deaths. And more than 3000 schools have also been affected in Thailand alone which will have long term consequences on the education of thousands of children.

“UNISDR is also urging the governments of the affected countries to open discussions with the private sector on what adjustments need to be made in their land use to locate their factories in disaster proof areas to better protect their workers and prevent them to build their home in unsafe areas. The private sector has a responsibility in reducing disaster risks when these events are now so predictable in the light of what we know about the impact of climate change on the frequency and intensity of these types of disasters.”

Across the region the well-being of millions will be drastically affected by loss of livelihoods as manufacturing plants are forced to shut and agriculture struggle to recover.

“These floods map exactly onto models for a one-in-a-hundred-years event, and things could get worse in the future. If we know where the floods are going to happen and how high they are going to be, then we should be better prepared,” said Velasquez.

Brunei Darussalam and 11 others Urban Search and Rescue: Boosting Intra-ASEAN Self Help

2011-10-11T23:43:00.000+08:00

Report—Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies

By Nah Liang Tuang

Synopsis

Natural disasters such as the earthquakes and tsunamis in the Indian Ocean off Sumatra in 2004 and in Japan most recently highlight the importance of qualified Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams. ASEAN's lack of such vital rescue expertise needs to be addressed.

Commentary

THE 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and the most recent Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March this year have highlighted the power of Mother Nature to wreak havoc. Thousands of people had died and many more were trapped within collapsed urban structures, straining search and rescue operations. Such rescue duties especially fall upon the shoulders of specially-trained and equipped Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams.

Unfortunately, only a few ASEAN countries have local USAR capabilities. The rest have to call upon foreign USAR assistance during a crisis. This situation should be rectified because foreign USAR teams take time to deploy; during this lag, urban disaster victims who might have been saved may die from their injuries or deprivation.

Disaster Preparedness in ASEAN

Vietnam is prone to typhoons like Typhoon Xangsane in 2006 and Ketsana in 2009; Myanmar has been battered by Cyclone Nargis in 2008 and both Indonesia and Thailand have suffered from the 2004 tsunami on Boxing Day, 26 December. In all these cases, built-up settlements ranging from villages to major cities were severely damaged or destroyed with casualties and fatalities ranging from the hundreds to many tens of thousands.

It is evident that many lives would have been saved if domestic USAR teams were activated in the immediate aftermath of these natural calamities. In ASEAN, however, only Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have established official USAR agencies. Additionally, according to the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) of the United Nations, only Malaysia and Singapore have USAR teams that are trained according to INSARAG guidelines and have operational experience.

For example, the Special Malaysian Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) has seen action in the West Sumatra Padang Earthquake of 2009 while Singapore's Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) was deployed to Aceh, Indonesia following the 2004 tsunami.

As Southeast Asia has not seen the end of catastrophic natural calamities or man-made urban disasters such as the collapses of high-rise buildings due to shoddy construction standards, every ASEAN country should establish INSARAG-certified USAR teams in all major cities.

How the Situation Should Be Improved

As Malaysia and Singapore seem to have the best-trained and organised USAR teams in ASEAN, it would make sense for the two countries to extend their expertise to other ASEAN states without established USAR organisations like Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar and even states like Thailand and the Philippines. These other ASEAN states can seek to improve their USAR capabilities by sending delegations of civil defence/rescue personnel to either Malaysia or Singapore to learn from their more established counterparts. Alternatively, handpicked training staff from either SMART or DART could be sent on short advisory stints to the other ASEAN countries.

In Singapore, the training of nascent ASEAN USAR teams could be coordinated under the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP). The SCP could act as the liaison body to match the training expertise of DART under its parent organisation, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), with interested ASEAN rescue teams. To assist some of these new USAR teams with their initial equipment requirements, the SCDF could even transfer some of its older USAR hardware to the former as a token of ASEAN solidarity. This would make operational and economic sense if the equipment was about to be phased out but was still serviceable. Politically, such an offer of assistance could be made at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting for Home and Interior Affairs Ministers.

Sustainability Of Assistance

While the human reasons associated with ASEAN brotherhood serve as an idealistic basis for offering training assistance to embryonic USAR teams, some policy-making quarters might ask for tangible geopolitical justifications to back this initiative. To these officials and especially those who are Singaporeans, two reasons may come to mind.

The first is that of soft power cultivation. Having trained USAR teams from all over ASEAN promotes respect for Singapore's civil defence capabilities, enabling it to speak with authority and influence in international for a concerning disaster-related topics. This is another way for Singapore to "punch above its weight". Secondly, the provision of such assistance helps to lubricate the wheels of ASEAN diplomacy. This will earn goodwill for Singapore and allowing it to better mediate in disputes between other ASEAN states if ever called upon to do so. Additionally, this goodwill can also ease bilateral negotiations between Singapore and other ASEAN members over other contentious issues.

The deficiencies in USAR capabilities amongst ASEAN countries who most require such specialist capabilities must be urgently addressed, especially given the growing frequency of natural disasters in the region.

Nah Liang Tuang is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.

FREE Eye Cataract Programme

2011-10-08T12:59:00.001+08:00

Cataract remains the most common cause of preventable blindness in the world. Surgical techniques have advanced in recent years to enable visual rehabilitation by the same day or within the next few days without the need for stitches or a large incision.
Insaf Malaysia with the collaboration of KL Eye Specialist Centre Kepong is offering a free consultation and cataract operation. The offer is for those unable to effort the cost of the operation i.e. low income / needy.

As there are only limited places (15) Please contact us as soon as possible at Insaf Malaysia 03-4251 9444 office hours only.

N.B Valid for Malaysian only.

Donation

2011-10-07T12:50:00.005+08:00

Donate using Gift Aid to INSAF MALAYSIA 03-4251 9444
When giving money to charities and other good causes, make sure you do so via the generous, tax-efficient Gift Aid scheme.
With basic-rate tax relief via Gift Aid, a RM10 donation automatically becomes RM12.50. On top of this, higher-rate taxpayers can reclaim a tax rebate worth a fifth of their Gift Aid donations.
Make your donation to INSAF MALAYSIA through CIMB Bank Account No.1429-0000594108

Program CSR Anda...

2011-10-02T17:38:00.003+08:00

“Kepada badan korporat atau orang perseorangan yang

ingin membuat sumbangan kepada misi bantuan bencana

Insaf Malaysia atau mempunyai pelan ushasama

untuk membantu golongan yang dalam kesusahan ini

dalam program CSR anda, bolehlah berhubung terus

dengan kami untuk mendapatkan maklumat lanjut.

Talian 03-4251 9444

Kami juga ingin mengucapkan ribuan terima kasih kepada

semua pihak yang terlibat dalam menyokong dan

membantu Insaf Malaysia selama ini dan berharap

kerjasama ini akan berterusan pada misi-misi yang

akan datang.”

Aziz Radin (H Logistic IM)

Qurban/Aqiqah in China

2011-10-01T13:30:00.001+08:00

bismillahirrahmanirrahim

asslamualikum

Pls help to fwd to Muslim friends to help our Muslims in China.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
Assalamualaikum dear Brothers/Sisters in Islam
Alhamdulillah and thank you for supporting the Qurban/Aqiqah in China.

The meat has benefitted thousands of poor Muslims who seldom get to eat meat which is beyond their means!So once a year they look forward to the qurban meat which they will eat sparingly thro out the year, they salt it ,smoke it, or dry it to preserve the meat!Attached is the new Form and the tour itinerary for this coming qurban.

Thank you to all those who have donated generously towards our AMAL projects. Your sincere contribution has turned the lives of many poor Muslims inremote villages and dry mountainous regions where poor Muslims struggle to eke a living on farms.
Alhamdulillah, with your concerted effort, Sister Mariah Mah, in her role as co-ordinator of projects, has been cited in a recently published book by The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Georgetown University, USA, as one of "The 500 Most INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD" WHO HAVE MADE CHANGES IN THE LIFE OF POOR MUSLIMS IN CHINA! (http://www.rissc.jo/muslim500v-1L.pdf)
We are presently supporting the livelihood of 100 orphans, funding the fees of 20 poor Muslim undergrads who cannot afford to pay their education, 200 Madrasah teachers(each month $100) helping to distribute sadaqah for Iftar Ramadan, fidayah, repair and rebuild masjids, wudu places and build village pre schools and water projects for.
Please help to support an orphan or a poor undergrad at $50 a month with some of your zakat or sedaqah. May Allah Bless you and increase your rezki.
Please Qurban with us again and do join our AMAL Silaturrahim tours to discover Muslim Communities in China and visit our Orphanages. Group and Individual tours can be arranged anytime by our registered tour agency in China.
We would appreciate your help in forwarding this email to all your Muslim friends and encourage them to Qurban and/or to do the zakat/sedaqah.
Yours in Islam

Mariah Mah (Tel: 96567315, 62412000)
http://www.chinamuslim.net/

Program Ibadah Korban di Jawa Tengah, Indonesia

2011-09-21T00:26:00.001+08:00

Korban di Jawa Tengah, Indonesia

The Sphere Project philosophy: The right to life with dignity

2011-09-15T22:20:00.000+08:00

The Sphere Project – or ‘Sphere’ – was initiated in 1997 by a group of humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Their aim was to improve the quality of their actions during disaster response and to be held accountable for them. They based Sphere’s philosophy on two core beliefs: first, that those affected by disaster or conflict have a right to life with dignity and, therefore, a right to assistance; and second, that all possible steps should be taken to alleviate human suffering arising out of disaster or conflict.
Striving to support these two core beliefs, the Sphere Project framed a Humanitarian Charter and identified a set of minimum standards in key life-saving sectors which are now reflected in the Handbook’s four technical chapters: water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion; food security and nutrition; shelter, settlement and non-food items; and health action. The Core Standards are process standards and apply to all technical chapters.
The minimum standards are evidence-based and represent sector-wide consensus on best practice in humanitarian response. Key actions, key indicators and guidance notes (described in the ‘How to use the standards’ section below) accompany each standard, providing guidance on how to attain the standard.
The minimum standards describe conditions that must be achieved in any humanitarian response in order for disaster-affected populations to survive and recover in stable conditions and with dignity. The inclusion of affected populations in the consultative process lies at the heart of Sphere’s philosophy. The Sphere Project, consequently, was one of the first of what are now known as the quality and accountability (Q&A) initiatives.
The Humanitarian Charter and the minimum standards are published together as a Handbook, the latest edition of which you are reading now. The Sphere Handbook is designed for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation during humanitarian response. It is also an effective advocacy tool when negotiating for humanitarian space and for the provision of resources with authorities. Furthermore, it is useful for disaster preparedness activities and contingency planning, with donors increasingly including the standards in their reporting requirements.
Because it is not owned by any one organisation, the Handbook enjoys broad acceptance by the humanitarian sector as a whole. It has become one of the most widely known and internationally recognised sets of standards for humanitarian response and is used as an inter-agency communication and coordination tool.
First published in 2000, the Handbook was revised in 2003 and again in 2009–2010. During each revision process, sector-wide consultations were conducted, involving a wide range of agencies, organisations and individuals, including governments and United Nations (UN) agencies.
The principal users of the Sphere Handbook are practitioners involved in planning, managing or implementing a humanitarian response. This includes staff and volunteers of local, national and international humanitarian agencies. In the context of fund-raising and project proposals, the minimum standards are also frequently referred to.
Other actors, such as government and local authorities, the military or the private sector, are also encouraged to use the Sphere Handbook. It may be useful in guiding their own actions, but also in helping them to understand the standards used by the humanitarian agencies with whom they may interact.

World's most active volcanoes

2011-09-14T10:29:00.000+08:00

A few hundred degrees separates this pool of fiery orange magma in Italy’s Mount Etna from its hardened, gray crust. At nearly 11,000 feet (3,353 meters)

A NASA image released on May 22, 2011 shows smoke billowing from Grimsvoetn, Iceland's most active volcano.

A plume of smoke rises from the crater of Mount Shinmoedake in the Kirishima mountain range of Kagoshima prefecture on Japan's southern island of Kyushu on February 4, 2011

A wisp of smoke escapes from Mount St. Helens’ dramatic eggshell-shaped crater after an eruption

A woman flee as Mount Merapi releases volcanic materials into the air in Cangkringan, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 1, 2010.

An Indonesian man watches as Mount Merapi erupts in Hargobinangun, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010.

In this photo taken March 6, 2011 and provided by the US Geological Survey, Lava spatters above the fissure just west of the base of Pu'u O'o crater near Volcano Hawaii.

Cleveland Volcano releases a plume of ash that rises almost 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) above the North Pacific Ocean

In this photo taken Tuesday, March 8, 2011 and provided by the US Geological Survey, a view looking down onto the northeastern vent of the Kamoamoa eruption is seen in Hawaii Volcanoes

Lava flows into a valley in southern Iceland near the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

Lava free-falls into the sea from Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, July 26, 2002.

Mount Bromo spews volcanic materials as it erupts in this aerial shot taken from an Indonesian Air Force airplane that flies over Probolinggo, East Java, Indonesia on Monday, Nov. 29, 2010

Mount Semeru

Pahoehoe lava flows on Kilauea volcano in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Residents of Irosin township, Sorsogon province, pause to watch at Mount Bulusan volcano as it spews ash two kilometers into the sky Monday Feb. 20, 2011

The Tungurahua Volcano spews ashes during an eruption as seen from Cotalo, Ecuador, Friday, April 29, 2011.

This picture made available Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011, shows lava overflowing from the eastern rim of the erupting pit crater of Mount Etna, Sicily, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011.

Volcanic smoke rises from the crater on Mount Shinmoedake in the Kirishimna range on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011.

White smoke rises from the crater on Mount Shinmoedake in the Kirishimna range on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011.

Somalia

2011-09-13T22:15:00.000+08:00

A displaced family eats a hot meal in a Mogadishu feeding centre (WFP/David Orr) WFP Scaling Up To Meet Needs In Somalia

The number of people now in need of food relief due to drought, conflict and high food prices in Somalia is approximately 4 million – or more than half of the country’s population. WFP is currently providing food assistance to nearly one million people in Somalia and will scale up its operations during coming months to reach some 1.9 million people in those parts of the country where we have access. Other agencies have taken responsibility for getting food assistance to areas of the south that we cannot reach and WFP urges donors to support them. Famine conditions now prevail in six southern areas and are expected to spread further throughout the south during coming months, according to The Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) for Somalia and the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET). Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have fled to refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia during the current crisis while tens of thousands of others have poured into the capital, Mogadishu, in search of help.

WFP Food Arrives In Flood-Affected Areas Of Sindh

2011-09-13T22:04:00.000+08:00

ISLAMABAD - The first convoy of trucks carrying food from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) arrived in Badin district on Sunday for distribution to thousands of households hit by flooding across Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.

Initial distributions plans will see 500,000 of the worst affected people receive a one-month food ration. Distributions are expected to start on Monday.

“We have been closely monitoring the unfolding situation and are ready to respond,” said WFP Pakistan Acting Country Director Dominique Frankefort. “The situation is clearly critical and deteriorating for many who have seen their entire livelihoods washed away. WFP is mobilizing every possible resource to make sure their needs are met as quickly as possible.

Following a formal request from the Government of Pakistan, WFP is working with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), as well as the provincial authorities, other local agencies and partners to provide emergency food rations to those worst affected by the flooding. WFP food basket includes wheat flour, pulses, vegetable oil, salt, high energy biscuits and specially designed baby food 'wawa mum' to prevent malnutrition.

Latest government figures indicate that nearly five million people have been affected by flooding following heavy Monsoon rains, with lower Sindh province bearing the brunt of the inundations and parts of upper Sindh also affected.

A joint NDMA, WFP and OCHA rapid needs assessment is on-going in 12 flood-affected districts using questionnaires and methodology that was already prepared as part of contingency planning. This will determine the scale and duration of the assistance to be provided by WFP.

WFP is currently assisting over 1.4 million people affected by the 2010 floods through early recovery programmes that run until the end of 2011. Although WFP is utilizing food from its in-country stocks to respond to the life saving needs of the current floods, urgent additional support is required from donors to ensure continued WFP support to the hungry across Pakistan.

What Is Acute Malnutrition?

2011-09-13T21:33:00.000+08:00

Acute malnutrition is a serious health problem that can lead to permanent metabolism issues, kidney and immune system breakdown, and even death by starvation. Acute malnutrition is a leading illness in some parts of the world, brought on by a lack of food or a sudden illness that prevents food intake. Treating and preventing acute malnutrition is a major cause undertaken by governments and charitable organizations, as a high percentage of people that show signs of the condition are infants and children.

Malnutrition is different from many other diseases, since the cause is not an inherent bodily breakdown but often a result of poverty and a lack of food supplies. The body requires food as a car requires fuel; without vitamins, minerals, proteins, and amino acids, the organs of the body cannot perform normally. When a sudden lack of food creates acute malnutrition, organ function slows and susceptibility to infection dramatically rises.

Diagnosing malnutrition is somewhat difficult, as there is no absolute rule between a person who is underfed and one who suffers from acute malnutrition. One diagnostic test is a comparison of weight to height; anyone under a certain weight to height ratio may be considered malnourished. In young children, diagnosis is often done through measuring the mid-upper arm circumference, known as the MUAC measurement.

A third sign of acute malnutrition is the appearance of edema, or areas of water retention, throughout the body. Checking for edema is done by applying gentle pressure to a swollen area, such as the feet, and seeing if an imprint temporarily remains on the pressure site. Edema is a sign of severe acute malnutrition, and require immediate treatment for any hope of recovery.

Treatment of acute malnutrition may not be as simple as restoring nutritious food to the diet. In malnutrition cases caused by chronic diarrhea or gastrointestinal problems, the underlying illness must be corrected if there is to be any improvement. Additionally, those who have been without food for an extended time period may be unable to stomach regular food, requiring IV nutrition until some level of health is restored.

As the condition is often caused by a shortage of food, a permanent cure consists of dramatically improving infrastructure in stricken areas. While charitable groups can save some people from the eventual death due to starvation, the curing of the cause is an enormous problem that involves the regional economy, roads, availability of doctors, food supplies and distribution, and even social structures. Curing acute malnutrition in one person is often possible, but curing an impoverished region of the illness is a tremendous problem that has yet to be solved in many areas of the world.

Pakistan PM calls for global flood help

2011-09-12T17:18:00.002+08:00

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has called for international help for up to five million people affected by recent monsoon rains.

Floods in Pakistan have killed 138 people in a month and affected up to five million more, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

Sindh, a flood-prone southern province, was the hardest-hit area with thousands of houses and large areas of crops destroyed.

"International organisations and the world community should focus their attention on the affected people," Gilani said in an address to the nation late Saturday.

"We are sure that international organisations and the world community would sympathetically consider the appeal by the President of Pakistan and take immediate steps for the rehabilitation of flood-affected people."

President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday asked the United Nations to issue an international appeal for humanitarian assistance.

Gilani said that recent rains in Sindh were almost two and a half times normal levels, and had inundated an area of 4.1 million acres, including 1.7 million acres of crops.

He said 700,000 houses were damaged across 21 districts, 150,000 people in relief camps needed immediate assistance, and 64,000 livestock had been lost.

The UN children's agency said up to 2.5 million children in southern Pakistan had been affected by the monsoon floods.

UNICEF said many people were still recovering from last year, when the worst floods in Pakistan's history affected 21 million people and killed an estimated 1,750, with the south again taking the brunt of the devastation.

"Children are the most vulnerable in any emergency -- in this disaster, many are experiencing the devastating effects of a flood emergency for the second time in a year," the organisation's Pakistan head, Dan Rohrmann, said in a statement.

Charity president says aid groups are misleading the public on Somalia

2011-09-12T09:14:00.001+08:00

A man holds his three-year-old daughter at a camp for displaced persons in Mogadishu.

The head of an international medical charity has called on aid agencies to stop presenting a misleading picture of the famine in Somalia and admit that helping the worst-affected people is almost impossible. The international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Dr Unni Karunakara, returned from Somalia last week and said that, even though there was chronic malnutrition and drought across east Africa, hardly any agencies were able to work inside war-torn Somalia, where the picture was "profoundly distressing". He condemned other organisations and the media for "glossing over" the reality in order to convince people that simply giving money for food was the answer.
According to Karunakara, agencies have been able to provide medical and nutritional care for tens of thousands in camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, which have been receiving huge numbers of refugees from Somalia. But trying to access those in the "epicentre" of the disaster has been slow and difficult. "We may have to live with the reality that we may never be able to reach the communities most in need of help," he said. Karunakara said that the use of phrases such as "famine in the Horn of Africa" or "worst drought in 60 years" obscured the "man-made" factors that had created the crisis and wrongly implied that the solution was simply to find the money to ship enough food to the region. He described Mogadishu, the Somali capital, as dotted with plastic sheets supported by twigs, sheltering groups of weak and starving people who had walked in from the worst-affected areas in southern and central Somalia. "I met a woman who had left her home with her husband and seven children to walk to Mogadishu and had arrived after five days with only four children," he said. "MSF is constantly being forced to make tough choices in deploying or expanding our activities, in sticking to our principles of neutrality with the daily realities of people going without healthcare, without food.

Our staff face being shot. But glossing over the man-made causes of hunger and starvation in the region and the great difficulties in addressing them will not help resolve the crisis. Aid agencies are being impeded in the area. "MSF has been working in Somalia for 20 years, and we know that if we are struggling then others will not be able to work at all. The reality on the ground is that there are serious difficulties that affect our abilities to respond to need." He said charities needed to start treating the public "like adults". He went on: "There is a con, there is an unrealistic expectation being peddled that you give your £50 and suddenly those people are going to have food to eat. Well, no. We need that £50, yes; we will spend it with integrity. But people need to understand the reality of the challenges in delivering that aid. We don't have the right to hide it from people; we have a responsibility to engage the public with the truth." Chronic malnutrition, said Karunakara, is not new in east Africa and needs long-term action. "The Somali people have been living in a country at war, with no government, for 20 years, with several long periods of hardship, of famine and drought. This harvest failure is just what has tipped them over the edge this time, a catastrophe made worse," he said. A brutal war between the transitional government, which is backed by western nations and supported by African Union troops, and armed Islamist opposition groups, notably al-Shabaab, is ongoing in Somalia. Fierce clan loyalties keep independent international assistance away from many communities, meaning that Somalis are trapped between various forces, depriving them of food and healthcare for political reasons. "We face constant difficult challenges over simple things like a new nurse or getting a car," said Karunakara. "When we need to be saving lives with a fully fledged medical response, we constantly need to be communicating with both sides in a war, reminding them what humanitarian aid is. One needs only to look at how few charities are working in Somalia." Ian Bray, a spokesman for Oxfam, said it was unhelpful for aid agencies to be seen to be arguing with each other. "We're being honest with donors and we have always been honest," said Bray. "A drought is a natural occurrence; a famine is man-made. We don't go around to people saying we have a magic wand, give us £5 and we will make Africa feed itself. We do say give us £5 and we won't use it to give you a history of Somalia, but we will use our expertise to save lives. This is what the bargain is we make with our donors. If you support us, we will do our level best to alleviate the distress for those people in most dire need."

Rescuers expect death toll to rise 20 dead, 55 missing in Talas' wake

2011-09-12T01:39:00.000+08:00

Storm-tossed: Firefighters search through houses destroyed by a landslide triggered by Typhoon Talas in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, on Sunday morning. KYODO

Kyodo Monday, Sep. 5, 2011

A powerful typhoon that hit the Kinki and Shikoku regions passed into the Sea of Japan Sunday after leaving at least 20 people dead and 55 missing in six prefectures.

The dead included 12 in Wakayama Prefecture and three more in Nara Prefecture.

The figures could rise when rescue efforts — disrupted by damaged roads and other factors in some typhoon-hit areas, mainly in the Kii Peninsula of Wakayama Prefecture — resume, local authorities said.

Typhoon Talas had crossed Okayama and Tottori prefectures by Sunday afternoon, moving into the Sea of Japan.

But the Meteorological Agency still called for vigilance, noting the slow-moving typhoon could bring heavy rains to western Japan, possibly causing more mudslides and flooding.

In four towns in Wakayama, including Nachikatsuura and Shingu, more than 3,600 people in 37 areas had been cut off in isolated pockets of the prefecture as of Sunday night, it was learned.

Seven people went missing in Shingu and 13 in Nachikatsuura.

In the Fudono area of Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, a landslide at around 12:40 a.m. Sunday destroyed six houses and left three women in their 30s to 80s and two high school boys missing. A 14-year-old girl was rescued at the site and taken to a nearby hospital.

Two-thirds of a 39-meter-long iron bridge over the Nachi River in the town of Nachikatsuura collapsed and was washed away in the swollen river. The bridge serves JR West's Kise Line, but no injuries were reported as the train operator halted all of its operations on the line.

In Gojo, Nara Prefecture, Chieko Nishimori, 67, died when a nearby river flooded 10 houses.

In Totsukawa, also in Nara, seven went missing after two houses were washed away by a muddy stream. Mika Oka, 36, was rescued from the area but later died at a local hospital.

Saturday's rain at the village was 591.5 mm, a record high for a single day in the area.

In Tokushima Prefecture, the body of Sumako Sogabe, 75, was found on a riverbank after she was swept away early Saturday morning while on her way to an evacuation center near her home in Miyoshi.

In Hiroshima Prefecture, the body of Masamori Hatate, 90, of Onomichi was found on the shore in Fukuyama after he went missing Saturday when he went out to secure his boat, according to local police.

Local police and firefighters continued searching for seven people who went missing after their houses were destroyed when the Kumano River overflowed its banks in the village of Totsukawa.

The typhoon also damaged Nijo Castle in Kyoto, dislodging a 1.5 meter by 1 meter piece of plaster from the wall of one of the gates.

The castle has been designated by the government as an important cultural property.