Latest from Social Issues

<i>Catherine Field:</i> Language police ignore textual chainsaw massacre of English

Phone help for quitters as prices rise

Man has ear cut off in drunken fight

A man's ear had to be re-attached after a drunken fight in Hastings last night.

<i>Noelle McCarthy:</i> So many reasons for social inequity, so few questioning it

Nobody wins unless everybody wins. It's a phrase on a post it that's been stuck to my computer monitor for weeks.

Get a sober driver for New Year's Eve, urge police

Police are urging people to stay off the roads if they're drinking tonight.

More charges laid against cop bashing accused

The two men arrested for attacking a police officer on the East Coast are facing more serious charges of threatening to kill him after appearing in Gisborne District Court today.

Police warn over underage sex, drug use

Police have told parents to keep track of their children after finding a girl, 14, having allegedly drug-fuelled sex near a beach overnight.

Officer keen to return to work

A Wairoa policeman attacked by two men in Mahia on Boxing Day is keen to get back to his job, Police Minister Judith Collins says.

<i>Dita De Boni</i>: From the front lines

Ira*, a social worker through the 1990s, left the front lines because she was sick of seeing so many abused children being returned to their wider families.

Teens arrested over baton assault on policeman

A Northland police officer has been hit over the head with his own baton after being called out to deal with a drunken fight.

<i>Lindsay Mitchell:</i> Meal-ticket children are hostages to lifestyles of parents

Sex conman fleeces pensioner

A pensioner has been blackmailed out of most of his life savings by a serial conman who threatened to spread rumours the two men were sexually involved.

Girl raises $109 for abuse victim

Waitemata police are praising the actions of a nine-year-old Devonport girl raising money to help a victim of horrific child abuse.

Hidden horror of holiday season

Amidst the joy, celebration and festivities of Christmas and the New Year period lies the hidden horror of the holiday season, as the rates of domestic violence, alcohol abuse and road fatalities increase.

'Unprecedented' need this Christmas

Staff at the Auckland City Mission have been rushed off their feet and will be cooking Christmas dinner for more than 2000 people tomorrow.

'Speed drinking' Hamilton bar loses appeal

Rugby: Howlett arrested in Ireland - report

Former All Blacks star Doug Howlett was arrested by Irish police on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly at his Christmas party night out with his Munster teammates.

Christmas stress keeping police busy