Indonesia has joined other countries around the world in expressing concern over the fate of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and other dignitaries who were traveling in a helicopter that went missing in northwest East Azerbaijan province.

Raisi died when a helicopter carrying him back from a visit to the Azerbaijani border crashed in mountainous terrain, killing all aboard, a senior Iranian official said.

Citing the royal court, the state news agency said the 88-year-old king would be treated with antibiotics until the inflammation subsides.

Lai was sworn in early Monday Taiwan time and will face rising geo-political turbulence in the region, with Chinese military pressure building and tense Washington-Beijing relations.

The most recent fatal crash of a Bell 212 was in September 2023, when a privately operated aircraft crashed off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to the non-profit Flight Safety Foundation.

"President Raisi's helicopter was completely burned in the crash ... unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead," the official told Reuters.

Fears grew for the 63-year-old Iranian leader after contact was lost with the aircraft carrying him as well as Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and others in East Azerbaijan province on Sunday, reports said.

A Turkish drone identified a source of heat suspected to be the helicopter's wreckage and had shared the coordinates of the possible crash site with Iranian authorities, Anadolu news agency said on X.

The Israeli army has been battling Hamas militants across Gaza for more than seven months while also exchanging near-daily fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah forces along the northern border with Lebanon.

"I feel much better here than in France," the 32-year-old of North African descent told AFP.

The president-elect joined a chorus of congratulatory messages from countries across the globe for Wong, Singapore's first new prime minister in 20 years.

While China does not want to upend its ties with the West, and insists it is not sending lethal weapons to Moscow, Washington has stressed that Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without Beijing.

Wilders won an election nearly six months ago and reached a deal on Wednesday to form a coalition with three right-wing partners. He has not yet proposed his choice for prime minister, but has ruled himself out.

"The People's Republic of China can't have its cake and eat it too," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

The 26-page coalition agreement emerged early Thursday after six months of gruelling talks between four parties following the stunning election victory of far-right leader Geert Wilders.

Hamas meanwhile insisted it would take part in any decision on the post-war government of Gaza as  Palestinians marked the 76th anniversary of the "Nakba", when around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 creation of Israel.

His victory at the February presidential election, Prabowo said, was evidence that the Indonesian people approved of him.

Wong rose to prominence in 2020 as co-chair of the pandemic taskforce and was named Lee's successor in April 2022 after a series of consultations between the political leadership and Wong's peers.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations has led so far fruitless diplomatic efforts to solve the conflict unleashed by the military's putsch, which has displaced 2.7 million people, according to the United Nations. 

China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, a 59-year-old four-time premier who came back to power after his Smer-SD party won a general election last year, chaired a government meeting in the central town of Handlova. Shots were fired after the meeting.

Some 40 percent of registered voters in the eight-day poll, which closed on Tuesday, said they would vote for Biden, a Democrat, if the election were held today, with the same share picking former President Trump. The dead heat was little changed from a 1 point lead that Biden held in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted April 29-30.

"Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed that all international events scheduled for the coming days be postponed and new dates coordinated," Sergii Nykyforov said in a post on Facebook.

Wilders, who has influenced Dutch immigration policy from the opposition benches since 2006 and is known for his outspoken views on Islam, was expected to announce a four-party coalition later in the day.

Treasury officials from Washington visited Malaysia last week to discuss their worries that the Palestinian group was fundraising there.

Prabowo in his capacity as Indonesian defense minister has in recent years boosted security cooperation with the Gulf nation. Prabowo revealed last year that his team was negotiating with the UAE for the procurement of several used Dassault Mirage 2000-9 fighter jets.

Wong, 51, comes from among a crop of so-called "4G" leaders, a new generation of politicians hand-picked by the long-ruling People's Action Party (PAP) to take over the reins of the key Asian trade and financial centre.