The regional war has also steadily pulled Iraq further into the fighting, after the country has long been a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran.

An alliance of leading media in Asia, the Asia News Network, has announced that applications are now open for its 2026-2028 journalism fellowship program that aims at building a Malay news network.

Trump threatened to delay a planned summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month if Beijing does not assist with reopening the strait.

The Foreign Ministry in Jakarta has condemned Israeli attacks in Lebanon, as the war in Iran spills across more borders.

The ships take a longer journey around the Cape of Good Hope in the southern tip of Africa following the outbreak of the war caused by unprovoked United States-Israeli attacks on Iran. 

The US president, in an interview with NBC News, said he thought Tehran was keen to come to the table but that Washington would fight on for better terms and might bomb targets on Iran's oil hub Kharg Island once, again, "just for fun".

Global oil prices have surged by 40 percent as Iran has choked off the vital sea passage and attacked Gulf energy facilities since US-Israeli strikes launched the war on Iran.

Jakarta decided to postpone the summit of eight Muslim-majority developing countries grouped under the D8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, which was scheduled to be held in mid-April, due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Trump's trip, his first to China in his second term, is aimed at sealing a trade war truce the two leaders shook hands on when they met in South Korea in October.

Trump had also threatened to hit the island's oil infrastructure if Tehran did not allow passage for ships via the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas normally pass.

The election has been dominated by Balendra Shah, the former mayor of ​Kathmandu, the capital, whose rap music critical of the establishment gained him near-rockstar-like fame on social media.

Sjafrie told reporters Indonesia had been prepared to send 20,000 troops for the force but was now ready to deploy 8,000, introduced gradually, adding that other countries had pledged to send lower numbers. 

Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin announced a plan for Indonesia and Australia to develop trilateral security cooperation agreements involving Papua New Guinea and Japan, as well as a defense training facility in North Maluku.

The war launched by the United States and Israel has rapidly spread across the region, with hundreds killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, and sparked global economic upheaval.

Britain's media and privacy regulators on Thursday demanded that major social media platforms do more to keep children off their services, warning that companies were failing to enforce their own minimum age rules.

The United States and Iran have signaled no quick end to their war, with US President Donald Trump saying it was necessary to finish the job and Iran warning that the world should be ready for oil at US$200 a barrel after striking tankers in Iraqi waters and other ships near the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Days after the first bombs launched by the United States and Israel on Iranian cities, explosions were heard across Tehran and other locations, including near the Indonesian embassy complex where evacuees were spending some time before leaving the country.

The oil-rich Gulf has borne the brunt of Iran's attacks in response to US-Israeli strikes that sparked the Middle East war, with Tehran targeting US assets but also civilian infrastructure.

South Korea's transport ministry cut construction costs and approved improper airport safety structures for more than two decades, the state auditor said in a report on aviation safety management after a Jeju Air crash that killed 179 people.

Thailand and Vietnam have encouraged public employees to work from home and take up other energy-saving measures as the Middle East war disrupted oil supplies and sent fuel prices swinging.

Australian police helped two more members of the Iranian women's soccer delegation slip their minders to claim asylum, but one has changed her mind and decided to go back to Iran, the country's interior minister said on Wednesday.

The conflict has engulfed the Middle East and roiled energy markets since the February 28 US-Israeli strikes that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggered the war, with Tehran on Tuesday vowing no crude exports would leave the Gulf if the bombardment continued.

French President Emmanuel Macron will convene a call with leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) on Wednesday to discuss the Iran crisis and rising energy prices, the French president's office said.

The United States said Tuesday it was striking Iranian ships capable of mining the crucial Strait of Hormuz and threatened escalation if Tehran presses ahead, as the Middle East war wreaks havoc on global oil markets.

The World Health Organization backs Iran's advice urging people to stay indoors due to toxic air from strikes on oil facilities.

President Prabowo Subianto has claimed that Indonesia maintains its long-standing “free and active” foreign policy, underscoring that Jakarta will continue to avoid aligning with any country or bloc despite rising geopolitical tensions, in his first public statement since the US-Israel war on Iran began on Feb. 28.

Even as governments move to limit the impact on fuel prices, lines have formed at petrol stations in countries including Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines, although the situation remains stable elsewhere.