Firefighters, emergency personnel respond to house fire in Camden

Thousands of Egyptians are demanding that the British Museum return the Rosetta Stone. The bilingual carvings on the relic proved to be the breakthrough in the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics after being unearthed by colonialists in Egypt in 1799. The stone is the centerpiece of a new exhibition at London’s largest museum, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the stone's decipherment. The Rosetta Stone is one of over 100,000 Egyptian and Sudanese relics housed in the British Museum. Thousands of Egyptians are demanding the black granite slab's return. The museum says it obtained the stone lawfully.

Asian shares are mostly higher ahead of a closely watched speech by the Federal Reserve chief that may give clues about future interest rate hikes. Markets are also eyeing developments in China, where protests have erupted recently over the “zero-COVID” strategy that has confined millions of people to their homes, sometimes for months. Shares fell in Tokyo and Shanghai but were higher in Sydney, Seoul, Hong Kong and other regional markets. Authorities in China have eased some controls after demonstrations in at least eight mainland cities and Hong Kong. Security forces have detained an unknown number of people. Wall Street finished mixed.

China's ruling Communist Party has vowed to “resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces." The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission statement was released late Tuesday, after the largest street demonstrations in decades were staged by citizens fed up with strict anti-virus restrictions. While it did not directly address protests, the statement serves as a reminder of the party's determination to enforce its rule. There has been a massive show of force by the internal security services to deter a recurrence of protests that broke out over the weekend in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities. Security forces have conducted random ID checks and searched mobile phones for evidence of participation in demonstrations.

Three Chinese astronauts have docked with their country's space station where they will overlap for several days with the three-member crew already onboard and expand the facility to its maximum size. The latest crew includes the veteran of a 2005 space mission and two first-time astronauts. They docked with the Tiangong station at 5:42 a.m. Wednesday. The six-month mission will be the last in the construction phase of China’s space station. The station’s third and final module docked with the station earlier this month, one of the last steps in China’s effort to maintain a constant crewed presence in orbit. Tiangong can accommodate six astronauts at a time and the handover will take about a week. That marks the station’s first in-orbit crew rotation.

Asian shares are trading mostly lower ahead of a closely watched speech by the Federal Reserve chief that may give clues about future interest rate hikes. Markets are also eyeing developments in China, where protests have erupted recently over the “zero-COVID” strategy that has confined millions of people to their homes, sometimes for months. Shares fell in Tokyo but were higher in Sydney, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Authorities in China have eased some controls after demonstrations in at least eight mainland cities and Hong Kong. Security forces have detained an unknown number of people. Wall Street finished mixed.