AP The global luxury housing market lost some of its sheen last year as financial markets became unsettled and many wealthy buyers began to look for less expensive homes. “The return of realism,” is how Dan Conn, chief executive of Christie’s International Real Estate, described the high-end market that stretches from San Francisco to Singapore. Sales in a sector ...

  Bloomberg Most business travellers are at the mercy of their employer’s travel policies when it comes to where to stay. But once you get to your hotel, you’ll need to impress a different power broker to make your visit as comfortable as you can: the front-desk agent. With a few keyboard taps, these often-forgotten employees can control whether you ...

  Berlin, Germany / AFP Try looking for a free wi-fi connection in the cafe down the street in Germany and, more likely than not, there isn’t one. Forget about looking for open connections in parks or at key monuments. They just don’t exist. In an age when almost everyone carries a smartphone, the absence of such free hotspots can ...