By BRETT ARENDS Want to beat the Treasury market? Pay off your mortgage. Repaying a mortgage early offers, in essence, a risk-free return in the form of the interest saved. Nowadays anyone with a mortgage of 4% or 5% can earn more by repaying the loan than by investing in bonds, which have been rallying [...]

By SARAH TILTON Open House 331 Greer Rd. Woodside, Calif. STATS: A home of about 9,000 square feet, with nine bedrooms and 8½ bathrooms, on about 92 acres, asking $85 million, or $924,515.98 per acre. Property taxes in 2011 were $7,943.62. Photos: Historic Silicon Valley Estate Hits the Market for $85 Million View Slideshow Bernard [...]

By DAVID MERMELSTEIN New York The Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini has enthralled classical-music lovers for more than half a century. But while he continues to impress even his critics with his immense technical gifts in live performances and on benchmark recordings, he remains dogged by a reputation for cool, even chilly, perfection. Christopher Serra Normally [...]

By GREGORY L. WHITE, PAUL SONNE and SIOBHAN GORMAN MOSCOW—Russian authorities expelled an American they accused of being a Central Intelligence Agency officer operating under diplomatic cover on Tuesday, posing a new potential setback to recent U.S. efforts to rebuild frayed ties with Moscow. Russian authorities say they have detained an employee from the U.S. [...]

By COLLEEN DEBAISE From smSmallBiz.com MARTHA MONTOYA HAS found a way to grow her small business: She exports. While “exporting” conjures up images of vast shipyards and warehouses, Montoya, a comic-strip artist in Santa Ana, Calif., sells her colorful cartoon characters for use on snack packages in China, Ecuador, Colombia and other far-away places. She [...]

By ROBERT GRESKOVIC Brooklyn Phnom Penh’s Royal Ballet of Cambodia, the country’s exponent of Khmer classical dance, has roots going at least as far back as the ninth century. Like a crown jewel, the dance-and-music troupe’s appearances capped the Season of Cambodia, a two-month series of events and exhibitions in New York. Performances of “The [...]

By MARY PILON A college education may not be worth as much as you think. For years, higher education was touted as a safe path to professional and financial success. Easy money, in the form of student loans, flowed to help parents and students finance degrees, with the implication that in the long run, a [...]

Por EYK HENNING, de Frankfurt O diretor-presidente da Siemens AG, Peter Löscher, enfrentará pressão renovada para dissipar dúvidas sobre o desempenho da empresa quando apresentar, na quinta-feira, seu resultado trimestral em meio a um cenário de negócios desanimador na Europa. O principal grupo de engenharia da Alemanha é acusado por muitos de ser grande demais [...]

By MATTHEW GUREWITSCH Maui, Hawaii Just about anyone can pick up the ukulele and make music in no time, but who ever goes beyond the basics? Historically, the lowly Portuguese-descended cousin of the guitar has served to accompany the vocals of aloha-spirited islanders or winking comics like Tiny Tim. Now the 36-year-old Honolulu native Jake [...]

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN If you’re awaiting the arrival of a new family member, preparing for maternity or paternity leave is probably a top priority. Advance planning is critical for safeguarding your reputation among your peers. “This is also a big transition for the people who work with you,” says Cali Williams Yost, president and [...]