In health, the election has become a bidding war focused on the new centre ground of free doctor visits.

Pinepine Savage holds proof in her own life that it is possible to turn around a town that everyone had written off.

New Zealand has retained its rank as one of the world's most developed countries.

Kiwi donors are sponsoring three African children - in Mt Roskill. The trio came here as refugees in '08 need the sponsorship because the family can't make ends meet.

Is poverty for life? A Treasury report suggests not, writes Brian Fallow. Only 24 per cent of those at the bottom decile in 2002 were there seven years later.

'Let's go and have a look around," is how my Dad announces a trip to a town whose main draws are a supermarket and an obese pigeon.

I'd just landed back in NZ after five "trip-of-a-lifetime" weeks at the Fifa World Cup, writes Diana Clement. If there's a lesson from Brazil, it's be happy.

100 low-income families were asked what they needed to get out of poverty. Here are their answers.

In 1898 New Zealand was favoured with a visit from Sydney and Beatrice Webb. This English couple were early members of the Fabian Society, a progressive political movement that was an important driver in the formation of the British Labour Party.

Ghetto kid turned presidential hopeful Ben Carson is in New Zealand to help celebrate as the Duffy Books in Homes scheme turns 20.

There are children in New Zealand living in circumstances that are not much different from those in the slums of Delhi, says Jonathan Boston.

Editorial: Book launches can be a trap for unwary authors. Eager to gain the maximum publicity for their work, they face an ever-present temptation to gild the lily.

The poorest Kiwi children are now no better off than some children in the slums of India, a leading author says.

The richest 10 per cent of New Zealanders are wealthier than the rest of the population combined, according to figures cited by Oxfam NZ.

Children are coming and going between the country's poorest primary schools at a rate equivalent to half the schools' total rolls every year, a report has found.

The desperate residents of a besieged district of Damascus are expected to run out of food today.

Some British teachers are taking food to give their pupils breakfast every day because they are too hungry and exhausted to learn, says a new report.

At least 10 residents and police officers were injured yesterday as authorities ousted squatters from an abandoned building just steps from Rio's Maracana stadium.

Not charity, just work - the mission statement of Ethical Fashion Initiative couldn't be clearer.

IDFC and Bandhan Financial Services have won the first licenses awarded in a decade to set up banks in Asia's third-largest economy.

The Bangladesh city of Chittagong has been on the radar of Kiwi sports fans as the Black Caps play their T20 World Cup pool games there.

Obfuscatory. A word I want to repeat, Miranda-like, because it feels so good dropping out of my mouth.

A global survey has found that one in every six Kiwis ran out of money for food in 2011-12 - more than in all except eight other developed nations.

A charitable group is aiming to give away a million financial literacy work books to New Zealand students by 2020 to try to improve young people's wealth creation skills.

If the issue of inequality and poverty is to loom large in this election year there are a couple of cherished beliefs on both sides of politics that need to surrender to evidence, writes Brian Fallow.

Statisticians have discovered thousands more children and the elderly living in poverty than have been reported previously.