North Korea has passed a new law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state in a move leader Kim Jong Un says is "irreversible."

A Hong Kong court on Saturday sentenced five speech therapists to 19 months in prison over children's books deemed to be seditious, in a case that rights defenders say marks a major blow to free speech amid a tightening of civil liberties in the Chinese territory.

India was still a British colony when Queen Elizabeth II was born in 1926, but it had been independent for nearly five years by the time she became Britain's monarch in February 1952.

"Super floods" in Pakistan have left 3.4 million children in need of "immediate, lifesaving support," according to UNICEF.

At least six children were killed and 17 wounded when army helicopters shot at a school in Myanmar, media reports and residents said on Monday, as the military said it opened fire because rebels were using the building to attack its forces.