Simon Farrell-Green
Meet the new boss
Local governors often face different challenges to their national counterparts. Smaller budgets can mean fewer choices. But thinking differently can achieve big results, as our selection of inspiring local legislators proves.
Oceania
Fiji's dictator is this issue's style leader, Australia makes friends to handle cuts to military spending, and why new boats are part of New Zealand's defence forces' shake up.
Oceania
Auckland's ambitious transport plans and why Hobart has its eyes on Sydney's defunct monorail.
Diplomacy
Germany's Federal Intelligence Service's, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), relocation to central Berlin, Iceland's debate over membership in the EU, and New Zealand's cuts to its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Oceania
Perth's catch-up to Australia's cultural hubs of Sydney and Melbourne, failure of negotiations between Auckland's port and its striking workers, and solutions to Australia's 1.7 per cent annual population growth.
Oceania
Eurozone citizens head to Australia, schools get tough on pupils in Micronesia, and the authorities investigate dolphin smuggling in the Solomon Islands.
Almost there
Montréal has slipped in our city rankings, joining others in our bottom five for the past two years. We welcome newcomer Seattle to the list and will be watching its progress closely.
Oceania
The Solomon Islands men who have gone from government to jail and back to government, and why Samoa is considering a plan to switch timezones.
Business
The entrepreneurs with an idea for a digital democracy, Johannesburg's downtown gets a facelift, and online purchases can now be on London doorsteps within 90 minutes.
Talk of the town
Is there a future for local newspapers? We meet the believers from a British octogenarian maverick to a hi-tech Czech publisher and witness triumphs but also a spectacular failure as it happens.
