Asia News Wrap: 23 killed in Bangladesh flooding, Japan self-driving taxis and more

Here are a few stories from around Asia you may have missed this week.

Twenty-three people have been killed and 1.24 million families were stranded across 11 districts in Bangladesh, officials said on Monday. Around 470,000 people have taken refuge in 3,500 shelters in the flood-hit districts, with the army, air force, navy and the border guard assisting in rescue and relief operations. Vast areas of land were submerged, posing a significant threat to crops if the floodwaters linger for an extended period, agriculture ministry officials said.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said that flood conditions could persist if the monsoon rains continued. As water levels are slowly receding, there is an urgent need for food, clean water, medicine and dry clothes, especially in remote areas where blocked roads have hindered relief efforts.

South Korea's parliament passed a bill on Wednesday that allows nurses to perform some medical procedures normally conducted by doctors as the healthcare workers called for greater legal protection amid a prolonged doctors' strike.

For years, nurse lobby groups and unions have pushed for a nursing law to improve working conditions, but their attempts have been thwarted by opposition from doctors.

However, concerns have been mounting about the increased burden that nurses have to carry since thousands of trainee doctors began a nationwide walkout in February to protest a government plan to boost the number of medical school admissions. The latest legislation was designed to lay the legal groundwork for measures that allow so-called physician assistant nurses to perform some procedures.

The Korean Nurses Association welcomed the bill, saying it was the outcome of a 19-year effort.

Police in India fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters marching in the eastern city of Kolkata in West Bengal state on Tuesday to demand the resignation of the state's chief minister in the wake of a gruesome rape and murder of a trainee doctor.

Protesters, led by university students, broke through the steel barricades set up on the route of their march to the West Bengal state secretariat, resulting in a baton charge by the police, who had earlier declared the protest illegal. The August 9 attack on a 31-year-old doctor caused nationwide outrage.

A plan to have self-driving taxis on Japanese roads by the end of the year has been put in place this week by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. The plan was put forward by a startup called Tier IV, specializing in autonomous-driving technology, and has been selected for demonstration. They will begin commercial operation of Japan's first Level 4 self-driving taxi service in November at Odaiba in Tokyo. The new vehicle that Tier IV is developing is a box-type electric vehicle that can accommodate four to six passengers. During early stages of the roll-out, Tier IV will use the same vehicle it used in its demonstrations earlier this year: a mass-produced taxi vehicle called JPN Taxi. 

Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), oversaw on Tuesday a test-firing of the 240 mm multiple-rocket launch system in production at defense industrial enterprises under the Second Economic Commission, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

(Cover: Aerial view of the flooded Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in the Muhuriganj area of Feni district of Chittagong division of Bangladesh, August 24, 2024. Feni, Chittagong, Bangladesh. /CFP)