City comes out swinging over Government suggestion that ratepayer cash be used to prop up SkyCity's international convention centre.

Kiwis are getting healthier, but New Zealand still faces serious health issues, especially in the most deprived areas.

Christmas is meant to be a time of happiness and good cheer. Instead I find myself getting very angry.

Hospital emergency staff across the country are bracing for an influx of drunk patients as revellers over-indulge during the festive season.

Peter Lyons writes: When we eventually achieve the budget surplus we need to recognise it has been paid for by many of those who had the least to start with.

New in-fill for artificial fields is being investigated as residents near an Ellerslie complex complain of the "horrible" smell of rubber tyres.

Not drinking is the easy part. The hard part is dealing with people’s reactions to your alcohol-free lifestyle, Deborah Hill Cone writes.

Matt Heath writes: Last Christmas my two boys got so many presents they became bored opening them - if your kids get too much, why not take them to see the people who don't?

Scotland Yard is investigating claims that a Tory MP throttled a young boy to death during a depraved sex party in the 1970s and that two other boys were killed by a VIP paedophile ring.

The queues start about 3am each day, but the Auckland City Mission says just a third of the donations it needs this Christmas have been raised.

Wriggling toddlers will meet their match when Kidz First Clendon Community Clinic nurses get the best seat in the house.

The All Blacks, Warriors and the Black Caps say proposed changes to alcohol sponsorship and advertising would threaten the sustainability of their codes at nearly every level.

The Government has been told to end alcohol sponsorship of sports clubs and ban any alcohol advertising during televised matches by a ministerial forum.

Catherine Delahunty writes: Gareth Morgan has many interesting opinions and is well informed but his opinion piece on Maori representation on local councils requires a response.

Some teachers need to get over their victim mentality and recognise the benefit of cutting their holiday time, a leading principal says.

A bill which would legalise voluntary euthanasia has been dropped by Labour MP Iain Lees-Galloway at the request of his leader Andrew Little.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott plans to hold a referendum in 2017 to change the constitution and finally recognise Aborigines as the nation's first people.

Doctors question if an already stretched workforce can cope with the govt's ambitious target to treat every cancer patient within two months.

A new study has found that two-thirds of children in private rental housing in Auckland and the Waikato move house within their first two years.

I liked to drink. I liked to be drunk. "You self-medicate," my psychiatrist said, kindly, writes Deborah Hill Cone. Strangely, I even liked hangovers.

Middle-aged home buyers face being locked out of the property market because banks are worried they are too old to pay off their mortgage before they retire.

Nineteen youths with unsettled upbringings were honoured for their outstanding achievements at a special ceremony yesterday.

He's 28 and a former mechanic - but had to go to jail to learn that it's useful to save some of your money.

"I only do boys - so what's the problem?", asked the sex offender denied the chance to meet his daughter. Lucy Lawless came face to face with him.

The Families Commission is rebranding today taking a name which almost identical to that of a French supermarket chain.

President Obama's executive order would spare from deportation five million immigrants who have lived illegally in the US for at least five years and have children who are citizens.

Black America has again been reminded that its children are not seen as worthy of being alive - in part because they are not seen as children at all, but as threats to white lives.