Iran's supreme leader has agreed that people killed in nationwide unrest last month who had no role in fomenting it should be treated as "martyrs" with their families compensated.

Eight people, including four children, were killed after a gas explosion destroyed a house in a ski resort in the south of Poland late Wednesday, local authorities said. 

France's vaunted high-speed trains stood still Thursday, schools across the country shut down and the Eiffel Tower warned visitors to stay away as unions held nationwide strikes and protests over the government's plan to overhaul the retirement system.

Paris deployed 6,000 police for what's expected to be a major demonstration through the capital, an outpouring of anger at President Emmanuel Macron for a reform seen as threatening the hard-fought French way of life.

A US sailor fatally shot two people and wounded a third at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii on Wednesday before taking his own life, a senior Navy officer said.

The United States said Wednesday it would name an ambassador to Sudan for the first time in 23 years as it welcomed the country's new reformist civilian leader.

Three constitutional experts on Wednesday bolstered Democrats' efforts to impeach Donald Trump by saying the president's actions seeking foreign interference in U.S. elections are grounds for removal, as the inquiry kicked into a new phase in Congress.

France was Wednesday preparing for one of its biggest nationwide strikes in years with stoppages by transport workers and teachers expected to paralyse the country in an intensifying showdown between President Emmanuel Macron and unions.

Some 90 percent of high-speed trains have been axed, most of the Paris metro will be shut, hundreds of flights cancelled and the majority of schools closed in Thursday's strike over Macron's planned pension reforms.

US lawmakers will start debating whether to draw up articles of impeachment against Donald Trump on Wednesday, based on a report detailing "overwhelming evidence" the US president committed misconduct in office and obstruction.

The House Intelligence Committee report published Tuesday accused Trump of subverting national security as he pressured Ukraine for dirt on a Democratic election rival. 

NATO leaders sought to make a show of unity on Wednesday as they met to conclude their annual summit, but the alliance's chief admitted a festering row with Turkey was still unresolved.

Iran is willing to return to the negotiating table if the United States first drops sanctions, President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday, after a fuel price hike sparked deadly violence ahead of elections.