Our latest batch of citizens are embracing the multicultural nature of the country they now call home.

Dogs which provide vital assistance to people with disabilities will be fitted with identification tags so they can easily be reunited with their owners in emergencies.

"Stalking" potential dates online and ending a relationship via email are becoming dating norms for Australasian women, according to a snapshot of online activity here.

Being a mother sometimes feels like I'm carrying a donkey, writes Deborah Hill Cone.

The Human Rights Commission is calling for a star-rating system that would expose poorly performing rest homes to help families avoid them.

Here are a sample of readers' emails in response to our series on rest homes.

A former rest home manager is calling for better care for the elderly after her father was "starved of food and fluid" in a Whakatane centre.

A rest home company which was overcharging some residents is about to have its district health board contract terminated.

At 92 this year, Connie Bythell has had a full life. She grew up in Blenheim, worked as a teacher, went to India as a missionary, then worked in her home church until retiring at 70.

If people feel they are being treated as disposable units of labour then outcomes will suffer, writes Peter Lyons. This may help explain why the growth in labour productivity in NZ over the past few decades has been less than spectacular.

Moving in with nine flatmates takes a bit of getting used to when you're 73, says Alison Glen.

At 95, Lilian Robinson is blazing a new path for older Kiwis who want to stay out of rest homes.

Caregivers do tasks few could stomach, often for minimal wages, report Simon Collins and Martin Johnston.

A successful building plan will result in a 10,000-home oversupply in Auckland, says NZIER.

For years, Allan Titford and his many supporters fashioned a dystopian and blatantly racist vision of New Zealand's future, writes Paul Moon.

This is Part 1 of a series of four articles on the role of business and how it may be changing as companies consider social and environmental concerns in the post-global financial crisis world.

A group of us went up to Kerikeri last weekend to run the Kerikeri Half Marathon.

Most teen girls who are sexually abused blame themselves because they have ignored their parents' warnings, researchers have found.

Cross-party inquiry comes up with strong message for change from emphasis on caring for people late in life.

Strong warning labels should be placed on all beer, wine and spirits as part of a plan to stop pregnant mothers from drinking, MPs say.

Making sure pregnant mums see a doctor within 10 weeks of conception should be a national priority, say MPs working to improve children's health.

It's been one of the mildest flu seasons in 20 years, but the young, elderly and Pacific Island and Maori people are still at serious risk from the flu.

The Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus arrived in the Netherlands on Saturday to the delight of thousands of children.

A CYF caregiver has been humiliated after the organisation wrongly suggested she was being investigated for abuse of a child in her care.

Rent increases have made all low-income groups in Auckland except superannuitants worse off in real terms than they were five years ago, according to the Salvation Army.

Editorial: Mayor Len Brown's pursuit of a policy that would see the Auckland Council pay the "living wage" to its staff has drawn a variety of objections.

Our minimum wage is so low about 40 per cent of children living in poverty are not living in beneficiary families, but have low-wage-earning parents, writes Emily Keddell.

There's something rather heart-warming about the growing popularity of the "living wage" movement, writes Brian Rudman. Despite three decades of market economic indoctrination, NZ's underlying sense of fairness and decency remains intact.