Embrace the charm. It’s all around us this issue – from the compilation of a Charming Index (yes really) to features that just make us feel warm and cosy inside.

The Chinese city of Harbin is quickly establishing itself as a regional power, bringing in investment and cashing in on its food and fashion. Although it’s still a long way off Shanghai, it’s proving that it’s far from grim up north.

Ghana is drilling for oil. Apartments are going up, the educated diaspora is returning and the government has a plan to avoid the “resource curse” seen in places such as Nigeria. In Accra the mood is optimistic and the city’s new wealth looks set to revitalise an already culturally rich location.

An oil boom is driving Santos’s remarkable transformation and, as the cash flows in, the port city’s coastal cache and ambitious regeneration means it’s giving drizzly São Paulo a run for its money.

Iranian carpets are works of great craftsmanship. But with the souring of relations with the US and fewer Iranians prepared to endure the hard toil and low pay, the industry is in danger of decline.

We present 10 of the world’s most charming places, from an airport to a restaurant. And on page 113, the venerable Stephen Bayley explains why charming the pants off people will always get you through.

Norway’s minister of foreign affairs is a firm believer in dialogue, which includes analysing the painful massacre last July. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t prepared to send in the troops overseas if deemed necessary.

Houston, in oil-rich Texas, isn’t a city you might associate with progressive or green credentials. And yet its inhabitants have just re-elected Annise Parker, a liberal who has put renewable energy firmly on the agenda, as its mayor.

The crime of stalking is elusive to define, tricky to prove, and tough to effectively punish.

Iconic newspaper headquarters are increasingly attractive prospects for developers

The view from Kabul, the Taiwanese president's modest motorcade and health insurance for Tibetan monks.

Style leader: Morocco's Mohammad VI, election watch in Senegal and Iraqi tourism.

Nauru's political woes, Sydney's housing price price slide and a Samoan film tipped for the big time.

US budget cuts and Russian naval ambition.

In his three decades of foreign service, the US ambassador to the UAE has learned that art can play a powerful part in diplomacy, communicating in a way that transcends culture and language.

MONOCLE catches up with the US's main in the UAE and takes a peek inside Brazil's Kenyan embassy.

The young guns taking the tea world by storm, mobile markets and an eco-friendly super-yacht.

Top tipping for 2012 and a round-up of the best books, music, and cinema, including Martin Westlake's Asian photography.

A pioneering art gallery project in Oslo, a Q & A with Brussels-based publisher Andreas Qvist and a sleek new digi-radio.

A pioneering art gallery project in Oslo, a Q & A with Brussels-based publisher Andreas Qvist and a sleek new digi-radio.

A round up of news, products and projects, including stools from Mexico, cutlery from Germany and a definitive book on Danish design.

The clothes, bags and shoes we've fallen for this month, plus news designers, brands and retail ventures.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are a remote-controlled method of attacking militant targets but often end up with civilian casualties. For Israel, the world leader in their development, they’re the future.

The Big Apple’s annual ode to chocolate is packed with punters unwrapping exotic bars of the brown stuff from around the world. The push this year – chocolate as a sophisticated and healthy option for a nation that continues to battle the fat.

Christian Stadil is the owner of Hummel, a Danish sports and fashion company, author of management books and a regular face on television. He tells Monocle about his business-model-with-a-conscience.

As the big media store chains disappear, Japan’s most successful book, music and magazine seller has opened a project that challenges everyone. We visit the floors of a refreshed retail landscape.

Monocle flies on ANA’s new 787, visits a bookstore-turned- restaurant in Porto and samples a cinema in Wellington.

Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, aka French ambient electro band Air, talk to Monocle about their working life, from a reluctance to dance on stage and their inner maths geeks to finding studio voodoo power.

Tucked inside woodland and backing onto a beach, this residence in New Zealand’s North Island is the most ambitious project to date from local practice Herbst Architects, using plenty of wood to blend into the scenery.

In the fresh morning chill of the UK’s southern counties lies a late-1960s hideaway by architect Rex Johnson. Monocle makes itself at home with a selection of winter clothing befitting a lost modern classic. *Fashion director* Takeharu Sato

This month our wishlist includes traditionally made soaps from Lebanon, classic kitchenware from the UK and brilliantly functional bags from Sweden.

Within four years of its launch, this privately owned Turkish airline has one of the most comprehensive domestic services in Europe.

Monocle cracks the mysterious and intriguing world of safes and vaults by paying a visit to family-owned locksmiths Parma Antonio & Figli. Fortuitously the Italian economic situation is working in their favour.

Traditionally the favourite of academics and young families, Kungsholmen runs as a small town within Stockholm. For decades it’s been a neighbourhood waiting to be discovered, but now the young creatives and entrepreneurs are finding its charms.

Zum Schwarzen Kameel has been hosting Vienna’s great and good for hundreds of years with an ever-evolving menu.

Leading soprano Deborah Voigt chooses the suitably breath-taking lakeside Boathouse restaurant in Central Park for her imaginary last meal.

In a former jail, now home to the American College of Building Arts, students are learning traditional restoration techniques and preserving their city of Charleston, South Carolina, in the process.

Monocle’s man at the helm Tyler Brûlé celebrates the charm of Japan – and our first travel guide on the country – looking at the little touches that make it such a joy to visit. As if we needed an excuse...