BEIJING (AP) — China on Wednesday blasted the latest package of U.S. military assistance to Taiwan on Wednesday, saying that such funding was pushing the self-governing island republic into a “dangerous situation.”

The U.S. Senate late Tuesday passed $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars. China claims the entire island of Taiwan as its own territory and has threatened to take it by force if necessary.

More than 2,100 people living near an erupting volcano on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island were evacuated on Friday due to the dangers of ash, falling rocks, hot volcanic clouds and the possibility of a tsunami.

Indonesia’s volcanology centre recorded at least three eruptions since Friday afternoon, with the maximum height of the eruption column reaching 1,200 metres (3,900 ft).

Numerous world leaders warned against an escalation of the situation in the Middle East on Friday, after Israel struck an Iranian military site in the city of Isfahan earlier in the morning.

Fears of a regional escalation caused oil prices to surge by several percent following reports of the Israeli strike, while several markets in Asia dropped, and European stock exchanges like the German DAX started trade with significant drops on Friday.

April 15 (Reuters) - An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude struck the New Britain Region in Papua New Guinea, on Monday, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ)) said.

The earthquake was at a depth of 79 km (49.1 miles), GFZ added.

Israel is set to normalize relations with Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country in the world, Ynet reported on Thursday.

The move comes after three months of secret talks between Jerusalem and Jakarta. In exchange for establishing diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, Jerusalem will reportedly lift its opposition to Indonesia becoming the 39th member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL — Prior to October 7, the future seemed so bright for Israel.

We had just signed our sixth Arab-Israeli peace and normalization agreement.

We seemed to be on track to sign a seventh agreement with Saudi Arabia.

Our economy was booming, tourism was hitting record levels, and Israel was building increasingly close and warm ties with nations and governments all over the globe.

The Palestinians’ long-dormant application for full United Nations membership will be given a fresh look on Monday.

The United Nations Security Council is set to meet, first in closed consultations, then in an open format, to consider the 2011 application—a move officially requested in a letter from Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Mansour last Wednesday.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's biggest earthquake in at least 25 years killed seven people on Wednesday, injuring more than 700, with 77 trapped in tunnels and collapsed buildings, authorities said, as rescuers used ladders to help some people descend to safety.

Television broadcast images of buildings tilted at precarious angles in the mountainous, sparsely populated eastern county of Hualien, near the epicentre of the 7.2 magnitude quake, which struck just offshore at about 8 a. m. (0000GMT).

China has deployed more than 20 fighter jets and eight warships towards Taiwan, the self-ruled island's defense ministry announced on Wednesday.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army sent 20 military aircraft and eight navy vessels around Taiwan in a 24-hour-window leading up to 6am local time Wednesday, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said.

Seven Chinese naval vessels and five military aircraft were detected operating around Taiwan on Sunday, the country's Ministry of National Defence has claimed, as the threat of an invasion surges.

They described one Chinese aircraft entering Taiwan's Southwest Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) as Taipei's forces monitored its movement.

TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will agree next month to tighter military cooperation, including talks on the biggest potential change to Washington's East Asia command structure in decades, two sources said.

Washington will consider appointing a four-star commander to oversee its forces in Japan as a counterpart to the head of a proposed Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) headquarters overseeing all of the country's military operations, said the sources, who have direct knowledge of the plan.

(Reuters) -An earthquake of magnitude 6.7 struck a remote part of northern Papua New Guinea on Sunday, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said.

The quake was at a depth of 65 km (40 miles), GFZ added. It had initially reported the quake as being at a shallower 10 km. The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicentre was 32 km east-north-east of the small settlement of Ambunti.