Asia Briefing: Dead clever
Conductors of autopsies in Japan are swapping scalpels for scanners.
Asia Briefing: Youth justice
In one Chinese town children will help to supervise entrance exams for various professions from now on after they proved to be better than adults at exposing people who were cheating.
Oceania Briefing: Dreaming tracks
With a little bit of country and a little bit of rock'n'roll, young aboriginals are helping preserve their dying aboriginal tongues in the Australian outback with the help of Apple Mac music software Garageband.
Africa/Middle East Briefing: Seeing past the facade
Lebanon may say it will be the last Arab country to sign a peace agreement with Israel but that will not stop it restoring an historic Jewish landmark to its original glory.
Africa/Middle East Briefing: Skipping lunch
Office workers in the Middle East are spending more and more time in the office and a break for a lunchtime shawarma snack is becoming a thing of the past.
Asia Briefing: Sow your own
China's urban elite is getting its hands dirty, planting fruit and vegetables in plots on their balconies and in their backyards.
Oceania Briefing: Help search
The Pacific region receives more aid per capita than any other region.
Defence Briefing: Enter the dragon
South Korea has unveiled plans to speed its new Sky Dragon long-range cruise missile and Red Shark torpedo into service earlier than expected in around 2012, in the latest stage of the Korean Peninsula's spiralling arms race.
Defence Briefing: Rotor rage
France has visibly taken on a more war-like posture in Afghanistan in an attempt to show an organic ability to protect its troops there.
Americas Briefing: Old one-two
Presidential elections in Uruguay on 25 October are being contested by a 74-year-old.
Oceania Briefing: Ghost drivers
Watch out if you're behind the wheel in Samoa.
Oceania Briefing: Best buddies
Australia and New Zealand have joined forces to try to make air travel between the two countries as easy as a domestic trip.
Defence Briefing: Naval gazing
Indian Navy chief of staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta must sometimes feel like it is two steps forward and two steps back.
Africa/Middle East Briefing: Shock and awe
Are you looking for a bit of romance in the cradle of civilization - with a touch of dictator kitsch?
Affairs Report: City-off
Style Leaders: Army of me
Many criticisms can be levelled justifiably at President Ramzan Kadyrov of the restive Russian republic of Chechnya.
Europe Briefing: Baby boom
The fertility rate in France has reached its highest in years, securing the country's place alongside Ireland at the top of the European baby-making league.
Opener: Force it
As Sweden ends compulsory national service, Finland carries on.
Affairs Report: Lakeland revival
Bujumbura has got all the substance required to turn Burundi's backwater capital into an African success story and the country's upcoming elections are a chance to create lasting peace after 15 years of civil war.
National icon: Jock tactics
Everyone loves a good, bad and ugly anti-hero and Canadian ice hockey commentator Don Cherry is just that.
Europe Briefing: Off the job
Italians may be feeling the pinch these days.
Americas Briefing: View from Washington
As the US finally establishes a national tourism authority, clever cross-marketing to foreign visitors will benefit the states less travelled.
Americas Briefing: Milking it
As wholesale milk prices fall, it's becoming more attractive for farmers to opt out of the mass market and sell directly to consumers.
Americas Briefing: Fits the Bill
Bill Clinton heads to Haiti this month in his new capacity as a UN special envoy.
Q&A: QA - Susanne Wiigh Masak
Americas Briefing: Uribe's rides
Having survived multiple attacks on his life, Colombian president Álvaro Uribe takes no chances with the security of his transport.
Q&A: In the hot seat
Chile's first female president, Michelle Bachelet, was tortured as a student under Pinochet's rule and lived in exile for nearly five years.
Defence Briefing: Heavy lifting
The US Air Force (USAF) has run a series of trials to ensure that the B-2 stealth bomber can carry the service's biggest conventional weapon.
Africa/Middle East Briefing: Rising sons
Botswana's president, Ian Khama, is expected to win elections this month and stay in the job he has held since 2008.
Business Briefing: Big in
Q&A: Amani Choudhry
Mayfair Wealth Management is setting up a service exclusively for Saudi women.
Business Briefing: Reading riot
Australia is often assumed to be like a bimbo - it looks gorgeous but there isn’t much going on up top.
Business Report: Still evolving
As capital of the vast, sparse Australian Northern Territory, Darwin has been given plenty of room to emerge as a dynamic port town.
Business Report: Like a sturgeon
With wild sturgeon disappearing from the Caspian Sea, sustainable caviar production from farms is taking over.
Culture Report: We're all ears - Hannover
When Axel Grell, engineer at German company Sennheiser, chose the music to test what he thinks is the world's best headphone, he turned not to Teutonic hi-tech sounds from Kraftwerk or Paul van Dyk, but instead used some good old blues records.
Culture Report: Keep it reel - Norway
From men's moustaches to a director's relationship with his transvestite dad, there is a new wave of documentary filmmaking in Norway bolstered by government funding and the country's talent pool.
Culture Report: Chalk show - Monrovia
Alfred Sirleaf's 'Daily Talk' newspaper reaches thousands of Liberians every day but only ever produces one copy. How does he do it? By writing the day's biggest stories on a large blackboard beside a busy road in the capital.
Well Stacked: Vendor and lender - Nairobi
Most Kenyans buy their newspapers from men like Oliwah Musumba. Every morning the 29-year-old collects a few hundred copies of Kenya's four main dailies and sets up his stall on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi's business district.
Culture Briefing: Media spotlight - God bless Africa
In Kenya, I am advising on a total rethink of the Nation, a project premiering before the end of the year. Like in a marathon, two Kenyans run side-by-side, the Nation and The Standard. Stay tuned.
Culture Briefing: Was this summer a Perfect Storm for sporting cliché?
For the bitchy media, when it comes to sport, sometimes it's not the winning but the talking part that counts.
Culture Briefing: Film
Monocle films.
Culture Briefing: Books
Monocle books.
Culture Briefing: Music
Monocle music.
Q&A: Matthew Slotover
Co-director, Frieze Art Fair.
Design Report: Justice for all - Global
LA's police force is trying to improve its image by creating friendlier buildings, including a glistening new HQ.
Design Report: Office colony - Paris
Paris-based architects Ciguë were tasked with turning an apartment from a design disaster into a space suitable for three firms to work in. They went one step further and made the bespoke furniture too.
Design Briefing: Rock on - Norway
Norwegian architects Jarmund/Vigsnæs were presented with the task of designing a seafront family summerhouse that would relate to the surrounding terrain.
Q&A: Kengo Kuma
Bamboo thickets, expanses of glass and a sloping tiled roof: the Nezu Museum reopens in Tokyo in October following a serene makeover by architect Kengo Kuma.
Design Briefing: Four-legged friends
Understated and elegant, these stools are inspired by traditional butchers' blocks.
Design Briefing: On your feet - Japan
Onitsuka Tiger, which has been making sports shoes for Japanese Olympic teams since the 1960s, turned to Copenhagen's Wood Wood to bring back its Asics XCaliber from 1982.
Design Briefing: Long haul - USA
Understated and elegant, these stools are inspired by traditional butchers' blocks.
Design Briefing: Makes scents - Finland
Comme des Garçons' perfumer Christian Astugueville has cooked up another covetable fragrance - this time for Finland's Artek.
Design Briefing: Shoemanship - Italy
Marni's autumn/winter men's accessories collection includes a special collaboration between its designer Consuelo Castiglioni and the Japanese shoe producer, Kamei Proact Corporation.
Design Briefing: Brothers beyond - Italy
A former broker for BNP Paribas and UBS, Frenchman Mathieu Vinson set up shirtmaker Fratelli with his brother in 2008 with the aim of creating "the ultimate shirt".
Design Briefing: History man - UK
Patrick Grant, who bought Savile Row tailor Norton & Sons in 2005, has relaunched English 19th-century sports and military label E. Tautz.
Design Briefing: Shoemanship - Italy
Marni's autumn/winter men's accessories collection includes a special collaboration between its designer Consuelo Castiglioni and the Japanese shoe producer, Kamei Proact Corporation.
Design Report: Up the wall - Tokyo
There are several striking elements to the new Marunouchi Park Building in Tokyo.
Inventory: No. 27 - October 2009
In this month's rundown of vital life improvements, we have whisky stones to cool your single malt, detergents with a twist and a back-to-basics cookbook.
Address book: Beach buns - Helsinki
Cafe Regatta serves perhaps the best coffee in Helsinki. Handy then that the beachside spot is open every day of the year, so you never have to go without your fix. Be sure to pick up a cinnamon bun with your espresso.
Global selection: Monocle travel guide
We at Monocle like simple things done well. That's why this month we focus on the essentials - a perfectly brewed coffee, sharply curated retail, and two blissful hotels - one whose build adheres to a traditional local love of limestone.
Travel edits: Must be something in the water - Naoshima, Japan
This unique public bathhouse by painter Shinro Ohtake is a monument to a freewheeling and virile imagination.
Property Prospectus: Basque in sun - Biarritz
On the French Atlantic coast, shun the beach in favour of a tree-lined avenue and a delightful covered market, perfect for that most Gallic of pastimes: people-watching.
The Perfect...: Kitchen kit - Global
For the gourmet and the gadget-lover, we've rounded up a host of unusual and staple items for your kitchen drawer from our culinary capers across the globe.
The Specialist: A cut above - New York
Specialising in washugyu, Japan Premium Beef is seeking to re-educate New Yorkers about steak.
Property Prospectus: South loop - Chicago
Lake views, affordable loft apartments and fantastic brunch mean nowhere currently offers more opportunity in the land of opportunity than the south side of Obama's town.
My Last Meal: Plenty of altitude - Turrach, Austria
We join British screenwriter Peter Morgan at Gasthaus zum Bergmann on the Alpine slopes of Turrach.
Expo: Playing soldiers - Europe
the role of national service in europe is changing as the prospect of war on the continent recedes and warfare is increasingly carried out by machines.
End Point: Issue 27
In the workplace and on the road, you can spot those who have done national service pretty quickly. They're the ones getting things done while their non-conscripted colleagues stand around idly puffing on ciggies.