Defence Briefing: Sail of the century

Germany is planning to build an innovative frigate that will be able to fight sustained wars against drug lords and pirates – or just help keep the peace.

Affairs Report: Power Struggle

Thanks to substantial foreign investment and its status as the home of the African Union, the Ethiopian capital is positioning itself as Africa’s diplomatic hub.

Affairs Report: Recognise us yet

Kosovo is about to celebrate its second anniversary as an independent nation.

Americas Briefing: Application game

Canada welcomes the world this month as part of that national branding exercise called the Winter Olympics, but it is also tinkering with its multicultural self-image in one other notable way.

Americas Briefing: Flipped off

In 2008, Havaianas maker Alpargatas sold 3.7m pairs to Argentina.

Americas Briefing: Rustlers' return

The crime seems rather wild-frontier, but the western US faces a cattle-rustling outbreak.

Americas Briefing: Drink to that

After two decades of being famous for exporting wine, Chile is now about to make waves with its water exports.

Americas Briefing: Female intution

Few state leaders have managed to carve a raw chunk of heart from the still warm carcass of a seal, swallow it, tidy their bloodied hands with a tissue, and look poised and pretty throughout.

Americas Briefing: Second home

The European Union is abandoning the building that has housed its mission in Washington since 1995, moving three blocks away across Foggy Bottom.

Affairs Report: Hope still

Barack Obama may not yet have brought about as much change as promised, but he himself has certainly changed.

Europe Briefing: Buzz of the city

Forget country meadows, the window boxes and flowerbeds of major cities are where French bees are happiest – and most productive.

Europe Briefing: Heil heritage

For the last 55 years Braunau, a remote Austrian village, has kept a lid on its most unsalubrious bit of heritage – a non-descript, two-storey building where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889.

Europe Briefing: Special friends

There’s nothing like EU membership for improving relations between neighbours.

Europe Briefing: Ugly no more

Roadside views are improving in some parts of Europe as electricity firms test ways to make pylons more pleasing to the eye.

Europe Briefing: Plane simple

Once the bodyguard of Bulgaria’s communist dictator, Todor Zhivkov, Boyko Borisov has been Bulgaria’s prime minister since his GERB party swept to power in parliamentary elections last July.

Europe Briefing: Clearing the air

From January, planes landing in Spain are obliged to put their engines into idle thrust for the last 180km of their journey to reduce noise and CO2 emissions.

Africa/Middle East Briefing: Fighting back

In a show of girl power, Egyptian women are fighting back against the bottom pinchers and gropers who plague the region: self-defence classes for women are becoming increasingly popular and karate classes especially so.

Africa/Middle East Briefing: Help unwanted

The UN’s largest peacekeeping operation may be coming to an abrupt end. More than 17,000 troops are currently stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where internal conflict has killed more than five million people in the past 12 years.

Africa/Middle East Briefing: Painfully funny

There’s a right bunch of clowns working in Israel’s hospitals. And it’s all because of the training medical staff are getting at the University of Haifa.

Oceania Briefing: One hump or two?

Koala bears, kangaroos and camels. In a list of animals associated with Australia the last beast in that list would appear to be an anomaly.

Oceania Briefing: Dirty money

Israel’s foreign ministry has leaked details of an offer allegedly made by Iran to the Solomon Islands of $200,000 of “technological aid”.

Affairs Report: That'll be the dane

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Danish prime minister, is NATO’s secretary general.

Oceania Briefing: Baby breach

Pregnant Fijian women might find it easier to dial Qantas instead of an ambulance.

Oceania Briefing: Bad punchline

A study published by the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology has found that male Australian teenagers are more violent than their American counterparts.

Affairs Report: Moving mountains

Once a roaring trade hub, Nepal is now among Asia’s poorest nations.

Q&A: Mister fix-it

As the finance minister in Zimbabwe’s government of national unity, Tendai Biti is trying to repair the economic damage inflicted by the Mugabe regime.

Business Report: Snow place like home

It was the perfect powdery snow blown in from Siberia that attracted the Aussie skiers.

Business Briefing: Raining supreme

For our series investigating the secrets of success, Monocle visits Austrian company Doppler, Europe’s biggest manufacturer of quality umbrellas.

Q&A: Hermann Würflingsdobler

Q&A with Hermann Würflingsdobler.

Q&A: Carlos Jereissati

In the past year Iguatemi São Paulo opened the first Latin American locations for Gucci and Christian Louboutin.

Business Briefing: Building big

China is building so fast that by 2018 its construction market will be bigger than the US’s, according to a report by Oxford Economics and Global Construction Perspectives.

Business Briefing: A good sort

A company in Tel Aviv has developed a way to use water to sort waste that is proving so efficient that Sydney (pictured below) and Los Angeles have ­already bought the technology.

Business Report: Poised to strike

In this issue, for our World Cup series, we visit Puma, the sports brand that has become most associated with African football.

Business Report: Open and shut case

Pelican Products was founded by a diver who wanted to keep his equipment safe and now it makes protective cases for everyone from the military to the iPhone user.

Culture Report: Music

Monocle music.

Culture Report: Post modern - Bern

Like other state-owned mail services, Swiss Post is under pressure from private-sector competition and the internet, but it is not running scared.

National icon: Drawing them in - Siena

Emilio Giannelli's satirical cartoons on the front page of 'Corriere della Sera' unite the nation in laughter.

Culture Report: Synth sense - Copenhagen

Danish producer Thomas Troelsen is the mastermind behind some of the last decade's catchiest pop songs.

Culture Briefing: Books

Monocle books.

: Film

Monocle films.

Culture Briefing: Art

Monocle art.

Culture comment: Who cares who's first?

News organisations can learn a lot from social networks but they need to remember the power of analysing events in the cold light of day.

Culture comment: Genoa's paper will soon be as punchy as the city's coffee

Those Italian newspapers! Like Italians themselves, they hold special charms that are often hard to describe.

Culture Briefing: Growth business - Japan

It wasn't just Monocle issue 24 that promoted agriculture, a Japanese print boom in agro-media is helping to counter the perception that agriculture in Japan is a badly paid, labour-intensive, future-less industry.

Culture Briefing: Gate gourmandise - USA

When you arrive at an airport, have an hour before your connection and you're hungry, do you grab a bite at the Starbucks in front of you or hold out for the possibility of somewhere better around the corner?

Q&A: Nasser Azam

Founder, Azam Collection

Culture Briefing: Auction sale - London

Christie's will re-introduce its Art of the Surreal sale in London following a sabbatical in 2009.

Hospitality Report: Room to improve - Gloal

The global marketplace isn't short of economic indicators but none's a more rapid read than hotel occupancy rates.

Hospitality Report: Hotel Star 01

Hospitality Report: What hoteliers target

A good hotel is an embodiment of the act of love: love understood as a commitment to the wholehearted care of another human being.

Hospitality Report: Q&A with John Morford, Designer.

Q&A with John Morford, Designer.

Hospitality Report: The luxury of no choice

There's something almost magical about being told what to do, which is what you sign up for when staying at a ryokan.

Hospitality Report: Q&A with Vianney Gravereaux

Q&A with Vianney Gravereaux.

Hospitality Report: Hotel Star 03

A new avant-garde ryokan in Kyoto has given Japan's traditional hospitality industry some much needed inspiration.

Hospitality Report: Q&A with Hidetoshi Nakata

Q&A with Hidetoshi Nakata.

Hospitality Report: Q&A with Klaus Kabelitz

Q&A with Klaus Kabelitz.

Hospitality Report: Q&A with Kit Kemp

Q&A with Kit Kemp.

Hospitality Report: Hotel Star 04

With the opening of The Orange in November, Belgravia gained another cosy pit stop courtesy of local hoteliers Barry Hirst and Stefan Turnbull.

Hospitality Report: First impressions

Different cultures have very different notions of what constitutes a good first impression.

Hospitality Report: Q&A with Giuseppe Pesenti

Q&A with Giuseppe Pesenti.

Hospitality Report: Q&A with Maria Sand

Manager and owner, Hotel Esplanade, Stockholm

: Hotel Star 05

Folkloro Iwate Towa - Hanamaki

Hospitality Report: Hotel fitness

Describing its work as a "wellness consultancy" rather than merely equipment suppliers, Italian fitness company Technogym is forging a fresh new approach to healthy hotels.

Hospitality Report: Q&A with Bruce Leishman

Lawyer and business traveller, Moscow

Hospitality Report: Hotel star 06

Casa Camper, Berlin

: Q&A with Isay Weinfeld

Architect, Brazil

Design Report: Inn focus - Global

: Fresh and clean - Oslo

Known for its design-led, weather-protective gear for the avid outdoorsman, Norrøna has opened its first shop, in Oslo.

: Padded sell - London

Danish brand Libertine-Libertine is the new project of ex-Won Hundred and Acne designers Rasmus Bak, Pernille Schwarz and Peter Munch Ovesen.

: Catch of the day - Venice

Venetian brand Barena was set up by Sandro Zara in 1961.

: Tricolore treat - Tokyo

On 11 February, Kitsuné will pop up a shop above Montoak bar in the Omotesando area of Tokyo.

Design Briefing: Star of stripes - Kahoku

Founded in 1919 in Kahoku, Japan, as a sandals dealer, Abe Sangyo began the wholesale manufacturing of sandals in 1971.

: Silky skills - Naples

For four generations, the Finamore family workshop has kept alive the Neapolitan tradition of sewing garments entirely by hand.

: Good goods - Malmö

Located in Sweden's third city of Malmö, Très Bien opened last year, and is already giving its Scandinavian competitors a run for their money.

: Remo Ruffini - President, Moncler

Outerwear brand Moncler recently announced two new collections.

Design Report: Talent spot - Tokyo

Tokyo Designers Week is a long-established annual event featuring two key fairs: 100% Design and DesignTide.

Design Report: Keep on trucking - Osaka

The furniture made by the husband and wife team behind Truck is so popular that the couple have been able to move into stunning new premises.

Design Briefing: Family planning - Slovenia

The Sotocje social housing complex in Kranj, 15km from Ljubljana, occupies land that formerly housed a rubber factory.

Design Briefing: Pot luck

Glazed stone cookware from Poterie Renault has been a fixture in French homes for over 160 years.

Design Briefing: Takeo Okuma

Fans of design hotel Claska can now visit its first standalone CLASKA/DO store.

Design Briefing: Shacked up - Australia

These holiday homes available for rent have been designed by Shane Thompson, a partner at BVN Architecture.

Design Briefing: Touched wood - Canada

Inspired by German firm e15 and the landscapes of its native Quebec, Hh is a new brand offering hand-finished furniture.

Residence: Cabin fever - Savoie

Unlike the usual identikit winter lodge, this remastered getaway in the French Alps is inventive.

Fashion: Cruise lines - the Med

Monocle packs its swim suits, shorts, espadrilles and jaunty hats and boards the MSC Splendida as it sails from Genoa to Tunis.

Hospitality Report: Analysts' overview

Think about luxury hotels and you're probably recalling a pleasant stay made up of several well-orchestrated services.