China’s military has set up a zone for “live-fire training” about 46 miles (74 kilometers) off the southwestern coast of Taiwan without advance notice, the island’s defense ministry said on Wednesday,

China’s Defense Ministry says that Australia made “unreasonable accusations” and deliberately hyped the situation after three planes headed to New Zealand changed course in midflight because of live-fire drills by the Chinese navy.

Taiwan dispatched forces on Wednesday in response to China's "live-fire" drills off the self-ruled island, Taipei's defence ministry said, condemning the exercises as dangerous. China's defence ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment from AFP.

A lawyer for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally gunning down U.S. health insurance executive Brian Thompson in December, told a judge Friday that her client was illegally searched during his arrest and she would seek to exclude that evidence from his trial on state murder and terrorism charges.

Airlines have been contacted by Australia’s air traffic control agency warning them of reports of live fire off the country’s east coast where a Chinese navy task group has been operating, the agency and Australian officials said.

Taiwan and China have also traded barbs this week over the severing of an undersea communications cable off the Beijing-claimed island’s southwest coast.