Watch out Mary Poppins, the hurricane howling through the world's financial markets is starting to be felt in the rarefied world of the British nanny.

As bankers and money dealers fall like flies to a credit crunch that has seen three major US investment banks disappear in a puff of smoke, so the nannies they have employed on salaries of up to £40,000 pounds ($50,000) have suddenly become expensive luxuries.

"The problems are just starting. In the last week or two I have started getting calls from nannies saying one or both of their employers have lost their jobs and so they have too," said Kate Baker of Abbeville Nannies in south London.

Thousands in the London financial district known as the City are either already out of a job or expected to be unemployed in the near future amid predictions that the global economic woes which began last year with the sub-prime shakeout will continue for many more months.

London, with its world financial hub, is the centre of the nanny trade in Britain, employing thousands of the surrogate mothers.

Naples hails miracle of St Gennaro's blood

Thousands of Neapolitans crowded into the city's cathedral yesterday to witness the miracle of St Gennaro - whose dried blood is said to liquefy twice a year, 17 centuries after his death.

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Archbishop of Naples, announced the blood turned to liquid at 9.45 a.m. and the glass phial was paraded to crowds outside, who set off fireworks in celebration.

Legend has it that when Gennaro was beheaded by pagan Romans in 305 AD, a Neapolitan woman soaked up his blood with a sponge and preserved it in a glass phial.

The substance usually turns to liquid twice a year - on September 19, the saint's feast day, and on the first Saturday in May. The miracle was only first recorded in 1389, more than 1,000 years after Gennaro's martyrdom.

Unknown Mozart score found in France

A French municipal library has discovered a musical score handwritten by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in its archives, the Nantes town hall has said.

The one-page work, donated to the town by a private collector at the end of the 19th century, was until recently thought to be a copy rather than an original.

The unpublished score, measuring 16 by 29 centimetres, is thought to have been written around 1787.

The score is undergoing a second round of expert investigations.

"A Mozart autograph is hugely valuable. There are lots of them in the vaults of Swiss banks," said Michel Noiray, head of the French centre for research on musical heritage.

Mozart was one of the most prolific classical composers. He died in 1791 at the age of 35, leaving over 600 known pieces of music.

Storm over politician's brothel story

A Spanish politician's public description of how he lost his virginity in a brothel has angered his female counterparts, who accused him of encouraging prostitution.

Miguel Angel Revilla, head of the government of Cantabria region, told a TV interviewer earlier this week that he had paid the first time he had sex at the age of 18.

Female members of the regional Parliament from the opposition conservative Popular Party were outraged. "As the head of the regional government, he should be an example for the young people of Cantabria," they said in a communique. "Instead he encourages them to pay for their first sexual experience."

However, Mr Revilla, a member of a regional party, accused his critics of hypocrisy and said they were unable to find matters of substance on which to attack him.

"There are major problems which need to be addressed now, not what a poor 18-year-old did," said Mr Revilla, who is now 65, adding: "Ninety-nine per cent of Spanish men did it back then."

Buyer sued over $53m penthouse

The buyer of a $53.5 million penthouse apartment in New York's famed Plaza Hotel who sued, saying the apartment turned out to be "attic-like", is now being counter-sued for lying to get out of his contract.

Russian financier Andrei Vavilov sued the hotel, developers El-Ad Properties and brokers Stribling & Associates this month for breach of contract, fraud, deceptive trade practices and negligence. He demanded the return of his $10.7 million deposit and $30 million in damages.

Mr Vavilov, who said he made the purchase based on a video, claimed that the apartment - actually two separate penthouses built on top of the Plaza - has small windows, low ceilings, obstructed views and ugly drainage grates.

But in a counter lawsuit this week, El-Ad Properties accused Mr Vavilov of libel and filing a "sham" lawsuit. It is seeking $36 million in damages.

Rare rhinos losing grazing land to weeds

South Asia's endangered great one-horned rhinoceros is being driven out of its natural habitat in search of food into the hands of illegal poachers, experts said yesterday.

A meeting of the Asian Rhino Specialist Group in Nepal said that the massive animal's feeding grounds were being invaded by "exotic species" of weeds and wild plants that are not suitable for rhinos and the rhino could soon run out of natural fodder.

Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, co-chairman of the group said from the Chitwan National Park, home to 408 rhinos. "We have to concentrate on how best to control the weeds and for this we have to intensify research."

The endangered animal, whose numbers have been rising in Nepal and India, is found mostly in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, and in southwestern Nepal.