A mum jailed today for almost three years for raising two kids in a clandestine P lab was blasted by a judge as being an "abysmal failure" as a mother.

A 10 per cent tax hike on tobacco introduced today will help more Kiwis escape a "creeping death", anti-smoking advocates say.

In a rare case of life imitating art, a 53-year-old goatee-wearing man named Walter White has been caught dealing an "extraordinary" quantity of methamphetamine.

A traveling medical technician was sentenced Monday to 39 years in prison for stealing painkillers and infecting dozens of patients in multiple states with hepatitis C through tainted syringes.

An independent report ordered by Brittany Murphy's father has revealed the US actress may have been killed by poison.

Rocker Pete Doherty is preparing to pay thousands of dollars in blackmail money over private film footage shot during his romance with supermodel Kate Moss.

A baby who died while in CYF care was born to a mother who was taking methadone and the infant had to be given morphine to wean him off the drug, an inquest has heard.

Forcing up tobacco taxes every year is having an effect. It's hitting the price point for many smokers, galvanising their resolve to quit.

In some circles you’re the odd one out if you don’t own a phone that can receive emails and browse the net. But that doesn’t bother Amy Williams, who is among a die-hard group stubbornly resisting pressure to upgrade their dumbphones.

The Government has been urged to introduce facial-recognition technology for poker machines to restrict problem gamblers as part of an overhaul of gambling laws.

Can't quit smoking? The answer may lie in your genes, according to a new study from Dunedin.

Joe Jackson learned of his son Michael's death from a fan.

A "grossly intoxicated" man who took a samurai sword to his mother's throat when she refused to hand over his car keys has been ordered to undergo alcohol counselling.

The positives of drug use need to be spoken of freely, according to a visiting British academic.

A man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia tried to kill his brother-in-law days after being released from a mental health unit at Auckland Hospital.