In the far north of Canada the frontier lifestyle is still alive and kicking – and nowhere more so than in Yellowknife. First they struck gold, then diamonds, and now there’s gas. But today those frontier folk are just as likely to be from Somalia.

Taser guns get the go-ahead in France, and Swedish prisoners get a style makeover.

Following this summer’s Georgian war, breakaway territory Abkhazia has been recognised as independent by Russia and Nicaragua. Limited diplomatic credibility hasn’t stopped it wanting the trappings of statehood: it hopes to open embassies soon and to start spreading the Abkhaz brand with a state airline.

"Style Leader" Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez dresses down, trams roll in to LA, and eight Barack Obamas run for elections in Brazil.

India's prime minster, Manmohan Singh, and his Motorcade, North Korea opens up to Chinese tourists, and Malaysia's most controversial blogs.

Car-sharing becomes big business in Australia, while New Zealand flies the flag for biofuel.

Tapping into renewable energy in the Rift Valley, military news, and trouble for the US Navy's submarines.

Five years ago, one of Khabarovsk’s main exports was its women, who went to work as prostitutes in Japan. Today, the Russian city is booming, thanks to its natural resources. But can this city, closer to Beijing than Moscow, keep the revival going?

It’s 70 years since the death of Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic. But the fate of the Atatürk Cultural Centre has hung in the balance until recently, coming to symbolise the struggle between the secular state and the governing Islamist AK party. Then on page 40, we look at Atatürk’s role in modern Turkey.

Mauricio Funes has given up his career as a TV journalist in a bid to become president of El Salvador. Ahead in the polls, he’s the new face of the FMLN, the former left-wing guerrilla group. Would victory see him join the Chávez camp?

Italy’s Trieste, population 208,552, has ambitions to return to its former glory as a wealthy trading port, luring start-ups with its enviable location and high quality of life (you’re more likely to live to 100 in Trieste than in any other part of Italy).

Manufacturers of equipment used by Nato forces have experienced a surge in demand and profits since the September 11 attacks. We look at what a German soldier in Afghanistan is given as standard kit, from high-tech night vision apparatus to food rations and body armour.

In the next two years, Spain aims to have the world’s largest high-speed network. Monocle meets the man in charge, then heads off to the Berlin rail trade fair, where the Russian market is causing all the excitement.

India's venture into olive-growing,frontiers funds, and the rise of sportswear brand Li Ning.

New York hardly needs more “up-and- coming” neighbourhoods or “hip” hotels. But with Seattle-based Ace Hotel Group’s revitalisation of the Breslin Hotel on 29th and Broadway, a forgotten district just north of Madison Square Park (now NOMAD) is about to be relevant again.

‘Magic walls’ and ‘QVR’ are in the lexicon this year for TV anchors covering the US election. Monocle looks at the networks’ top 10 secret weapons in the battle to report the winners and losers of the big day.

In our regular series looking at people’s working lives, we enter the world of Katie Paterson, a 27-year-old artist who brings ideas of the universe to life. One of her witty installations involves calling a mobile phone inside a glacier.

The ‘Rutland Herald’ is the second-largest daily paper in Vermont and the oldest family-owned newspaper in continuous operation in the US. Over the years it has grown more liberal and, in 2001, won a Pulitzer prize for its editorials supporting same-sex civil unions.

Films: An animated documentary about the Lebanon war, and a Russian émigré junkie in London. Books: Taschen's depiction of Soviet chic, a comic strip treatment of a nourish New York tale and a childhood memoir of Argentina's "Dirty War". Art: Photographic excellence is rewarded with the Pictet Prize show in Paris. Music: An ode to the Swedish seaside from Peter, Bjorn & John, Marc Collin's take on 1980s soundtracks and Jeremy Warmsley's confessional album.

A Buenos Aires bookshop with the largest collection of photography books in South Africa.

Security concerns- and a lack of imagination - have been responsible for the emergence of the bunker-style embassy building. But it doesn't have to be that way. Monocle surveys the designs a nation can be proud of, and creates its own.

Peru meets Norway in Arne & Carlos's knits, a one-brand campaign to make Canada stylish, and Lodger's managing director gives his take on the future of shoe-shopping.

Architect Deborah Berke talks about her new book, and a London designer's recycled furniture causes a stir in Austria and Norway.

Everybody who is anybody in the world of architecture goes to the Venice Biennale. So why were there so few good ideas this time?

Retired architect Shigemi Asano teamed up with Tezuka Architects to create a home that marries modernity with local tradition. Inside, Asano has stripped it of all but the most essential of belongings, leaving the views of the countryside to speak for themselves.

A few of our favourite things, including a new mobile phone by Bic and a waste disposal unit by Loofen. Plus, where to find the best room in the best ryokan at the foot of Mount Fuji.

Antwerp scores highest in the ‘most attractive and interesting city in Belgium’ category. Maybe it has something to do with the dock-lined River Scheldt that gives towering container ships access to the Port of Antwerp – the third largest in Europe – or its road of eccentrics and exceptional shopping.

For 152 years, Maglia Francesco has been using the same methods to make exquisitely detailed umbrellas, passing the skills and the family traditions down through five generations.

Pine-fringed beaches, rocky outcrops and Italian food and architecture define northern Corsica’s coast. We suggest you make Calvi your first port of call and base of operations on your island property prospectus.

Fashion designer Jean Touitou enjoys good food and eating in down-to-earth settings. For his ‘last meal’ he has chosen Maisen, a tonkatsu restaurant on a quiet back street in Tokyo’s Jingumae district.

The ancient art of sumo has been under threat in recent years from the dwindling numbers of homegrown wrestlers, match-fixing allegations, bullying and doping scandals. But fresh leadership in the Japan Sumo Association promises to clean up the sport and take it back to its ‘train, eat, sleep’ fundamentals.