The Hollywood Graveyard Instagram post was captioned: “The crypt of Matthew Perry has been marked at Forest Lawn Hollywood — forever remembered in the hearts of friends and fans all over the world". Perry played the role of Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom series Friends, which premiered in 1994. He remained close with co-stars David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow after the show’s decade-long run. The cast of the 90s sitcom Friends (l-r) Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Matt Le Blanc as Joey Tribbiani. Page Six reported that the actors each signed limited edition artworks by Tim Wakefield that were sold at auction to benefit the Matthew Perry Foundation.

Event Hire, which operates the ride, said the incident involved three men during one of the event’s final rides. Event Hire director Phil Anderson said all patrons were checked before boarding the ride “to ensure they are fit to ride safely”. The operator said they saw the men swinging the bucket they were sitting in during the ride, according to a statement from Event Hire. He said Event Hire notified WorkSafe of the accident and had also organised for an independent engineer to undertake a full technical review of the equipment involved. In Christchurch, police said behaviour at New Year’s Eve events was mainly good, with no issues at a Hagley Park concert and only minor incidents at the Rolling Meadows festival.

ManageMyHealth has “begun analysis to identify users affected” by a cyber breach this week. “We recognise that any incident involving health information can cause anxiety and distress,” he said. “ManageMyHealth and government agencies are working closely together to fully understand the scope of the breach and to protect the privacy of patients. Ramayah said to support patients and providers, ManageMyHealth would provide a detailed FAQ to “help resolve their questions where possible”. “We understand how personal and sensitive health information is, and we recognise the stress an incident like this can cause,” he said.

Helmets are compulsory for bike riders, including those who ride electric dirt bikes, police said. Police warning after surge in on-road electric dirt bike crashes, injuries and finesHelmets are compulsory for bike riders, including those who ride electric dirt bikes, police said. Photo / Getty ImagesPolice are warning riders about the consequences of unlawfully riding electric dirt bikes on roads, footpaths and cycle lanes, after a spike in crashes involving the increasingly popular vehicles. He said those caught riding illegally were exposing themselves and others to significant risk, with police taking action in regard to a steady stream of incidents involving dangerous riding. “We’ve seen people riding dangerously and crashes involving pedestrians and vehicles.

More than 108,000 ManageMyHealth users are affected by a cyber data breach. CEO Vino Ramayah confirmed the breach and said affected users would be notified within 48 hours. More than 120,000 people who use the ManageMyHealth portal are thought to have been caught up in yesterday’s cyber data breach. Ramayah said ManageMyHealth had “begun analysis to identify users affected”. “We recognise that any incident involving health information can cause anxiety and distress,” he said.

The country's largest patient information portal on Wednesday confirmed it had identified a cyber security incident involving "unauthorised access" to its platform. "I want to assure our users, customers, and stakeholders that we take the protection of your health information extremely seriously. "Health New Zealand is aware of the cyber security incident at ManageMyHealth and is working with them to understand any impacts. Ayers says it was a large data breach, even by worldwide standards and catastrophic on the New Zealand scale. But at 108 gigabytes, that's a pretty large data breach, and it looks like it's going to be much larger than the Waikato DHB data breach, which affected just over 4000 people."

We’re told that AI was inescapable in pop music this year, but I escaped just fine. Considering the embarrassing amount of money and hype wasted on AI-generated music this year, resistance was easy. But those technologies result in music only when deployed by human decisions — and, as listeners, much of our pleasure still lies in identifying those human decisions. But if we’re listening to music made entirely with generative AI, there’s no guessing game to play, no dancing to be done. And if sentient pop musicians ever figure out how to collaborate with generative AI in innovative ways, the innovations will be human.

As Wednesday turned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging 2025 and expressed hopes for the new year to come. While New Zealand was among the first in the world to welcome the New Year, countries across Asia, Europe and Africa have welcomed 2026 in the hours since. FIREWORKS LIGHT UP SYDNEYIn Australia, Sydney began 2026 with a spectacular fireworks display, as per tradition. The chimes are believed to dispel misfortune and welcome peace and prosperity for the year ahead. Organizers were hoping to beat their 2024 Guinness World Record for the biggest New Year's Eve celebration.

In a tragic start to the New Year on Sydney's eastern beaches, emergency services were called to Maroubra Beach at 4am after reports a person had been swept into the ocean. While yet to be formally identified, it was believed to be the missing woman and a report will be prepared for the coroner. At nearby Coogee Beach, a search was under way for a swimmer believed to be missing in the water. The incidents follow the death of a man in Sydney on New Year's Eve after a dinghy capsized at Palm Beach. A man was pulled from the water by surf lifesavers and treated by paramedics, but he died at the scene.

A search operation is under way to find a person heard yelling for help off a Dunedin track this morning. Police said they received a call from someone who was walking the Mackie Dackie Track, off Flagstaff-Whare Flat Rd, at about 9.30am today. The caller had heard someone yelling for help, but could not locate where the voice was coming from. Police have conducted initial enquiries and walked the track, but were unable to hear or see anyone. A Search and Rescue operation was now under way.

At the time of publication, RNZ found Wellington to Dunedin seat and bag fares on the Air New Zealand website for $436 per person. "Normally, she's really, really careful about these sorts of things. Air New Zealand was not responsible for the price that appeared on a website like Gotogate, she said. "It is really unfortunate that there are these third-party sites that do engage in what we would say is price gouging. RNZ has contacted Air New Zealand, Gotogate and its Swedish owner, Etraveli Group, for comment.

Trump’s deployments of National Guard troops have been a centrepiece of his hardline policies on immigration and crime since returning to the White House in January. The 79-year-old billionaire and former reality star has also sent the National Guard into the capital Washington and to Memphis, Tennessee, and threatened to send them to San Francisco. But the Trump administration had already begun to pull some troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland in recent weeks as court judgments went against it. Most had already been demobilised, with the US military saying 100 Guard troops remained deployed at the time. As of last week, some 300 National Guard troops remained activated in the Chicago area but were not engaged in operations.

Iran, which does not recognise Israel, has long accused it of conducting sabotage operations against its nuclear facilities and assassinating its scientists. The vice-president of the University of Tehran, Mohammad Reza Taghidokht, told the Iranian Students’ News Agency that four students were arrested on Tuesday and released overnight. Nevertheless, the protests remain limited in number and concentrated in central Tehran, with shops elsewhere in the sprawling metropolis of 10 million people unaffected. Before the attack in Fasa, Iranian media had not reported any new protests that day. There were also widespread protests in 2019, sparked by a sharp increase in the price of petrol.

One person was taken to hospital following a high-speed, head-on collision in the Kawarau Gorge this morning. A Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman said three crews from Cromwell were called to a crash involving three vehicles on the Gibbston Highway (State Highway 6) about 10.30am. It was reported the crash was "high-velocity" and two of the cars had collided at speed, the spokesman said. Initial indications had been of four people with moderate injuries and one person with minor injuries. *A single-car crash was reported at Roaring Meg in the Kawarau Gorge about 4.20am today and one person received minor injuries.

Parts of the South Island are welcoming the New Year with heavy rain warnings and severe thunderstorm watches. On Thursday, the ranges of Tasman District, west of Takaka, and Buller were under orange heavy rain warnings. MetService said streams and rivers could rise rapidly, with surface flooding, slips and difficult driving conditions possible. Meanwhile, much of the lower half of the South Island was under a severe thunderstorm watch from 2pm until 9pm. Driving conditions will also be hazardous with surface flooding and poor visibility in heavy rain."