Mark Zuckerberg wired together nearly 1 billion people on the Web. Now the ambitious young entrepreneur is building another kind of community, this one out of bricks and mortar. Construction is booming along a bustling stretch that cuts through the center of Facebook Inc.'s campus in Silicon Valley, which construction started in 2011. Here the social networking giant is designing its own Main Street, putting in storefronts that will cater only to Facebook employees, whether they're in the mood for a straight-razor shave or nigiri rolls. As reported The Los Angeles Times it will be called "Zucker Burg". Unlike the days of Henry Ford and George Pullman, when industrialists built towns surrounding manufacturing operations, Facebook is bringing retail shops onto its sprawling private campus on the outskirts of Menlo Park where there are few commercial establishments other than fast-food joints. The company is subsidizing the construction; handpicked merchants will offer discounted prices to employees. High-tech superpowers such as Google Inc. and Facebook are engaged in an escalating race to pamper employees with free food and luxuries such as complimentary laundry and dry-cleaning services. But Facebook had to come up with new carrots when it moved its headquarters a few months ago to a suburban outpost at the edge of tidal mud flats and salt marshes cut off from the rest of Menlo Park by a six-lane highway.

One of the most distinctive properties in the world has gone on the market - a fortress turned luxury villa, designed by Leonardo Da Vinci, the famous Italian artist and inventor who painted Mona Lisa. The building, in Livorno, Italy, is currently on the books of property firm Lionard Luxury Real Estate and is expected to sell for between US$ 5.6 million and US$ 11.2 million. Perched on top of a cliff, the property overlooks the Mediterranean Sea in Tuscany, Livorno, Italy, about 56 miles from Florence, where the painter stayed while he worked in 1502. The prestigious residence is part of a larger complex built as a fortification for the defense of the city of Livorno in the mid - 1400s by a well-known Florentine architect. Da Vinci designed the great walls surrounding the historic estate and gardens while working as a military engineer and, later, in the 19th century Napoleon's sister, Princess Elisa Bonaparte, became the owner. The main villa features a total floor surface of 773 square meters over four floors and a basement level. It is constructed of stone and brick, with terracotta flooring and copper eaves. On the ground floor, which is connected to the upper levels by an internal staircase, there is a hallway that opens onto a living room with a view of the sea, a dining area, three closets, a passageway, a bathroom and changing room, kitchen and larder. The mezzanine mainly features closets while on the first floor are the sleeping quarters with five bedrooms, each with in-suite bathrooms. The top floor, traditionally used by staff, features a kitchen/diner, a bathroom and a bedroom. The basement, which includes a closet, is reached by an internal staircase on the north side of the villa.

Pablo Picasso's granddaughter is selling his villa in Cannes and 126 of his ceramics as she tries to shake off unhappy childhood memories of the artist. Marina Picasso, 64, remembers being taken to the gates of the grand three-storey house, La Californie, by her impoverished father, Paulo, to beg for handouts from an indifferent Picasso. The sale "will be a way for me to turn the page on a rather painful story," told Marina Picasso. She has reportedly received an offer of nearly US$ 172 million for the 1920 villa that she inherited at the age of 22, along with an extensive collection of his works. Sotheby's expects the ceramics to fetch up to US$ 9.2 million. "It's not a house where I have a lot of good memories," she said. "I saw very little of my grandfather there. With hindsight, I understand that he may have been captivated by painting and nothing else was more important to him. Except when you're a child, you don't experience it like that." Picasso bought the villa in 1955 and painted one of his most famous works there, The Bay of Cannes. He moved out in 1961 after his view of the sea was blocked by a new building. Marina Picasso renovated the villa in 1987 and renamed it the "Pavillon de Flore", although it is better known as "La Californie". Marina Picasso says the sale will help her broaden her philanthropic projects. She funds a children's hospital in Vietnam and programs to help troubled teenagers and the elderly in Switzerland, where she spends much of her time. Picasso lived at La Californie with his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, who barred Marina Picasso and her brother Pablito from the artist's funeral. Pablito Picasso committed suicide a few days later. Marina Picasso's father was Picasso's son by his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, a Russian-Ukrainian ballerina. He was humiliated by being forced to work as the artist's chauffeur.