London, Dec 8 : Marine archaeologists have discovered a piece of string made out of honeysuckle, nettles or wild clematis dating back to the Stone Age.

The team led by Gary Momber of the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology found the four-and-a-half inch long string in a pre-historic camp 30 feet below the surface, 200 yards off the coast of the Isle of Wight.

The tough stems of honeysuckle, nettles or wild clematis were twisted together.

The researchers had cut out small blocks of the sea floor for analysis after seeing the wooded remains of the settlement by chance.

The string was buried in one of them.

With the aim to invent something extraordinary and unique, Intel is creating self-powered microchips. The unique thing about these microchips would be that it could be implanted in the human body, a mobile phone, a building, or anyplace else where people wish to gather information.

During a meeting on Friday with reporters in San Francisco, Intel CTO Justin Rattner described it as “wireless identification and sensing platform,” or WISP and it was among several other technologies described by Rattner during the meeting.

Tokyo - Japan on Monday lodged a protest with the Chinese government, saying two Chinese ships which entered Japanese waters surrounding a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea had to withdraw immediately.

The maritime survey ships entered the waters around the islands, which are known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, earlier Monday, the Kyodo News agency said.

"Such activity is extremely regrettable and we demand immediate withdrawal," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly lodged a protest with the Chinese government."

London, Dec 8 : It can withstand enemies’ attack, but a nuclear bunker failed to protect itself from the dreading effects of the financial credit crisis.

The auctioneers were forced to trim down more than 40,000 pounds from the asking price of the secure shelter underneath the Hampshire Downs despite its potential of converting into an eight-bedroom home, reports the Telegraph.

The 7,000 square feet nuclear bunker outside Twyford, near Winchester, which was priced at more than 300,000 pounds, is now up for sale for a price between 240,000 pounds and 260,000 pounds.

Brussels - European Union foreign ministers were meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss a request by the United Nations for the bloc to send peacekeeping troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, has ruled out the deployment of European forces. But pressure has grown on ministers to act following an appeal from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who says Europe should help reinforce UN peacekeepers in the former Belgian colony until more UN troops can deploy.