Just add one extra ingredient to the pan.

Rice is so versatile, pairing well with everything from chicken, beef and fish to curries, stir-fried vegetables and a range of sauces. But, cooking it doesn’t always go perfectly.

Common mistakes made when cooking rice include not rinsing the rice properly or not having the right water-to-rice ratio. This can result in undercooked, mushy or dry rice, none of which are particularly pleasant to eat. And even if you do get everything right, you can still end up with a flavourless side dish. Luckily, there’s an easy fix.

Writing on food blog The Kitchn, expert Emma Christensen shared her favourite ways to make “a boring pot of rice taste amazing”. Her first trick to “keep rice flavourful” is to toast the grains.

“Toasting the dry rice grains in a little butter or olive oil before adding the water brings out their flavour and adds a fantastic nutty note in the finished dish,” she explained, recommending you try this with brown rice or whole grains like barley.

Her second tip involved adding just one extra ingredient to the pan during the cooking process: cook the rice with chicken or vegetable stock, which can either be in the form of leftover homemade stock or a stock cube.

She said: “I sometimes find that using 100 percent chicken broth can make the rice feel gummy or overly-starchy,” adding: “I usually go for a 50/50 mix of broth and water. This adds a layer of flavour and richness without going overboard.”

Her final suggestion was to season the rice with whatever you’re already cooking, like the some of the same seasonings you’re using for the main dish.

The expert urged home cooks to use whole spices for subtle flavours and ground spices for a stand-out dish. She also explained she “almost always” adds a bay leave, regardless of what she’s cooking.

But don’t just take Emma’s word for it. There are plenty of home cooks who say cooking rice in stock instead of plain water is a game-changer. Home cook Sarah-Louise Kelly said she will “never go back” after making the change, which “made such a difference to the flavour”.

Mimi Harrison, writing on the Beat The Budget blog, said “making this creamy rice with chicken broth is the best and easiest way to enjoy rice with the same amount of cooking time”. She said: “Cooking rice with chicken broth will transform the flavour and turn a flavorless side into the most versatile, delicious, well seasoned pairing for just about anything. It’s buttery, creamy and feels luxurious.”

Here are three applications that have been approved (or cleared) in and around the town between March 23 and 27.

Sheds set for demolition at Percy Road garage

CB Auto Electrical Services has been given the green light to demolish two storage sheds at its site on Percy Road. The sheds sit to the rear of the main unit and are due to be removed without the need for prior approval.

The application was submitted on February 23 and validated on March 2. The council issued its decision on March 26, confirming that “prior approval is not required” for the demolition, paving the way for the yard to be cleared and reorganised.

New features approved for St Teresa’s Hospice

St Teresa’s Hospice on Woodland Road has secured approval for a series of upgrades to its entrance and a quiet reflection room. The plans include the installation of new fencing and a handrail along the main entrance ramp to improve accessibility and safety.

Inside, an existing window in the proposed reflection room is set to be replaced with a glazed door, brightening the space and making it easier to access. The application was validated on February 4 and approved with conditions on March 27, giving the hospice a clearer route to carry out the improvements.

Gladstone Street building to be split into two retail units

A building on Gladstone Street is set to be transformed into two separate retail units after the council signed off on a conversion plan. The approved scheme involves internal alterations, the addition of another entrance door, new roller shutters and revised openings to the ground‑floor frontage.

The application was first lodged on March 19, 2025, and validated at that time. It has now been approved with conditions on March 25, 2026, opening the door for a new shop layout and potentially fresh retail offerings on the street.

The Inspector of Burial, Cremation and Funeral Directors is currently investigating six cases following the suspension of staff at the NHS morgue.

A Glasgow super hospital is under external probe after its mortuary wrongly released six bodies and wrongly cremated one.

Queen Elizabeth University Hospital’s mortuary department has released the body of the wrong person six times since the facility opened, and cremated the wrong person, leading to five complaints into NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGCC).

The SNP Government opened the £1bln super hospital in 2015 to ministers’ jubilation but has been hit with various issues that sparked a public inquiry after cancer patients contracted rare bugs while being treated there.

The Scottish Mail On Sunday revealed that mortuary staff were suspended last December pending an investigation after a corpse mix-up, which resulted in the family cremating someone who wasn’t their relative.

It was only discovered at the funeral taken place as another family had been left without their loved one’s remains, reports Scottish Daily Express.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “At a time when families are grieving, these shocking blun­ders cause significant distress. One incident is too many. Six is scandalous. Police Scotland should investigate this matter.”

Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “This is a concerning revelation, and it will no doubt worry families who have lost loved ones at the QEUH.

“The release of a body in error would undoubtedly be distressing, and my sympathies extend to all those who have been affected.

“This is not the first time this has happened, and urgent steps must be taken by the hospital and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to ensure it does not happen again.”

NHSGCC confirmed six people have been incorrectly released after their deaths following five complaints being submitted since 2015.

It added that the health board has launched an internal prove into the mistake that resulted in the wrong person being cremated last year while it is also being probed by the Inspector of Burial, Cremation and Funeral Directors.

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A health board spokesman said: “NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde offers a sincere apology to the affected families. We recognise the additional distress this has caused and are committed to learning from these incidents to strengthen our processes.”

It comes after measures taken by the Scottish Government to ensure the hospital was built in accordance with met expected standards were “inadequate,” according to a note published by the Scottish Hospitals inquiry.

In last week’s “supplementary note,” lawyers to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry said ministers did not become aware of water and ventilation system issues at the QEUH until 2018 or 2019.

They said any pressure from the Government on NHSGGC to open the facility on time and on budget in 2015 had therefore been made in ignorance of these issues.

But the note questioned the steps taken by the Government to ensure the hospital was built in compliance with Scottish Health Technical Memoranda (SHTM), which set out best practice in the design of healthcare facilities.

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“I saw one come in from my synagogue, and it was talking not about the great services we put on, the outreach to local communities, the wonderful art and charity that we do, but about a series of kits we’ve just received that will help the community if there’s an attack to stem the flow of blood, or if there’s a chemical attack, that is the situation we’re facing.”

Amy Jones, 27, from Liverpool is searching for the man who refused to let two strangers take her to an unknown house

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A woman who claims she was spiked during a night out with friends in a city centre is appealing for help in tracking down the taxi driver who came to her aid. Amy Jones, 27, had been at a club in Liverpool on March 14 when she began feeling unwell during the early hours of Sunday, March 15.

Amy departed the nightclub on Stanley Street and headed to get a kebab on Dale Street. While inside the takeaway, her vision failed her, she felt nauseous and knew something was wrong. The Liverpool John Moores University student rang her friend to say she was heading home, but has no recollection of what happened afterwards.

She said: “My friends didn’t want to leave me but I insisted I would be fine, I wanted to meet a girl at the club and told them to go home. I went to meet her at Superstar Boudoir.

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“[Inside the nightclub] I told the girl I was going to the bar to get a drink and when I came back everyone had gone. I decided to go home because I was on my own and that’s when I went to get a kebab. I phoned my friend to tell her I was getting some food and coming home, it was around 2.45am.”

While inside the restaurant, Amy said she “started to feel strange”. She added: “I was paranoid I could hear people saying my name. I remember saying in the kebab shop ‘I think I’ve been spiked, can you help me.’” Amy, distressed and frightened, decided to walk home when she claims she was approached by a man on Dale Street who offered to help her. She said: “I was scared, I told him to leave me alone but he told me he wanted to get me home and seemed genuine.”, reports the Liverpool Echo.

“He waved a black cab down and asked for the taxi driver to take me home. But then he and another guy got in the taxi. They gave the taxi driver an address that wasn’t mine. I don’t really remember the taxi drive, my vision of everything outside the window was blurry, I couldn’t see anything but it felt like we were gone for a while.

“I remember I felt sick and I could hear them chattering about how f***** I looked. They started making out to the taxi driver like they knew me. He asked if I was ok and they said something like ‘no she’s always like this, she’s just drunk’.

“They got out when the taxi stopped and tried to get me to go inside a house with them. I had no idea where we were, the taxi driver refused to let me go inside and demanded to take me home. I have no idea what would have happened if I’d gone inside that house.”

Amy says the taxi driver allowed her to charge her phone and it was after 4am. She has no recollection of what occurred during that period from calling her friend and is urging the taxi driver to come forward and help her. She said: “I don’t know how to find him. All I remember seeing was ‘cab 66’ but I don’t know what that means. If it wasn’t for that taxi driver I don’t know what might have happened, I want to find him so I can ask him details of that night.”

Amy reported the incident to Merseyside Police. A spokesperson for the force stated: “We can confirm that we received a report of an alleged spiking in the early hours of Sunday, 15 March, although at this stage there is nothing to corroborate that any criminal offence has taken place.”

Are you the taxi driver who helped Amy? Email: megan.banner@reachplc.com.

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The girl died after she was found bleeding in a quiet residential street in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Hero neighbours have told of how they desperately tried to save the life of a teenage girl who was stabbed to death in the street.

A 64-year-old grandad administered CPR to the 16-year-old who he believes was stabbed in the neck and back. She was found unconscious in the street in the early hours of Saturday morning but tragically died later in hospital.

A murder investigation has been launched following the youngster’s teeth. Three adults and one child have been arrested in connection with the incident, reports the Mirror.

Police desperately tried to find the identify the teenager with a public appeal. Eventually they found out she lived with her mum and family in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, 16 miles and half an hour away from the crime scene.

On Sunday she was named locally as Chloe Watson, with friends paying tribute on social media, after her family had been informed.

Two grandfathers had tried to save Chloe, who they discovered wounded in their quiet street. Wayne Mallows, 64, described waking up at 5am, but had seen or heard nothing until a knock at his door 50 minutes later.

He said: ”I was called out of the house about 5.50am on Saturday morning by a dog walker. She said that my neighbour was outside doing CPR on a young girl.”

Mr Mallows said that his neighbour, who had been carrying out the CPR, lives across the street. The girl was on the pavement directly opposite his neighbour’s home on Kennerleigh Avenue, in the Crossgates area of East Leeds.

Mr Mallows, speaking near the quiet street of bungalows with neat gardens, said he “went out” and could see his neighbour “was getting tired”.

He said: “I asked if they’d rung an ambulance and then I realised that a phone was on the ground and he had it on loud speaker. Ambulance control were giving him instructions.”

Mr Mallows, who works in audiology for the NHS, said he’d received mandatory training in CPR on a mannequin, but never performed it in person.

“I took over until the ambulance arrived ten minutes later,” he said. “When the ambulance arrived around 6am the paramedics got all the kit out and tried to reactivate the heart and they were doing chest compressions.

“They did that for about five minutes and then got her into the ambulance. Police were arriving all the time.”

He said she had been stabbed in the back also said there was a wound to her neck. Mr Mallows said he is struggling to get the girl’s face out of his head.

“In my mind I have a picture of her face,” said Mr Mallows. “To me she looked very young, younger than 16.:”

Mr Mallows confirmed that Kennerleigh Avenue and neighbouring streets are normally very quiet, saying: “It is mostly elderly people in the bungalows, they come here to retire.”

Officers said they were called at 5.55am on Saturday to the quiet residential area in Leeds, where she was found with serious injuries.

Initially West Yorkshire Police took the unusual step of releasing her description to ascertain her identity; describing her as a 5ft 2in slim woman aged in her late teens.

But now her friends and family have posted about their devastation and named her on social media, with one saying they were “heartbroken” and said she had so much love for her little sisters.

Paying tribute to the teen, her pals wrote: “Your bubbly personality, your weird laugh, your cringy jokes will forever be unmatched. You always made sure everyone was feeling litty and loved…it’s truly devastating.”

Four people – two women aged 18, a man aged 20 and a 17-year-old boy – were all arrested from a nearby address on suspicion of murder and remain in custody, police said.

Detectives said on Sunday the girl has been positively identified as a 16-year-old from the Cleckheaton area. Her family have been notified and are now being supported by specially-trained officers.

Senior investigating officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Marc Bowes, said: “Following our appeal for further information yesterday, we have now identified the deceased as a 16-year-old girl from the Cleckheaton area.

“Her family have been informed and we are supporting them as they try to come to terms with what has happened.

“Our inquiries into the incident which led to her death are continuing, and I would appeal again to anyone who was in the Kennerleigh Avenue area in the early hours of yesterday morning to come forward if they have any information which could assist our investigation.”

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Every year the minimum wage increases in April

Workers are set for a welcome increase in minimum wage rates from next month as the new financial year begins. Rates are to increase on April 6, giving a pay rise for millions of workers.

The Government confirmed the new rates for 2026 at the Budget in November.

Rates of this legal minimum increase annually in April at the start of the new financial year. This year, they are set to rise by 4.1% after Chancellor Rachel Reeves accepted recommendations from the Low Pay Commission so that those on low incomes are “properly rewarded” for their work.

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Ministers have been determined to deliver “a genuine living wage”, according to the Low Pay Commission’s (LPC) remit for increasing the so-called National Living Wage – the UK‘s minimum wage for workers aged 21 and older.

The LPC has said it will consult with employers, trade unions and workers on narrowing the gap between the 18–20-year-old rate of the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage and will put forward recommendations on achieving a single adult rate in the years ahead.

From April the National Living Wage will rise by 4.1% to £12.71 an hour for eligible workers aged 21 and over, which the Government said will increase gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the rate by £900, benefiting around 2.4 million low-paid workers.

The National Minimum Wage rate for 18 to 20-year-olds will increase by 8.5% to £10.85 an hour, narrowing the gap with the National Living Wage.

This will mean an annual earnings increase of £1,500 for a full-time worker, which the Government said marks further progress towards its goal of phasing out 18 to 20 wage bands and establishing a single adult rate.

The National Minimum Wage for 16 to 17-year-olds and those on apprenticeships will increase by 6% to £8 an hour.

On Star Treatment, Alex Turner once declared that he “just wanted to be one of The Strokes”, and now, nearly 10 years later, we have Cruz Beckham intoning that he “wants to be John Lennon”, which is… well, not quite as realistic but you have to applaud the sheer audacity of the sentiment. He’s evidently not lying either – the influence of The Beatles coats much of the set, whether on the psych pop of genuinely very good third single For Your Love or the bluesy grooves of new standout Jackie. His guitar strap is emblazoned with Get Back while, later, a two-piece brass section transition from the self-reflective balladry of Loneliest Boy into the inimitable opening parps of All You Need Is Love.

The maximum temperature on Monday is expected to be around 11 °C.

It may feel like we have had all four seasons in one lately, and the weather outlook remains a mixed picture for the week ahead.

According to the Met Office, we can expect a few showers on Monday morning, turning mainly dry in the afternoon.

The maximum temperature is expected to be around 11C.

Monday:

A few early showers on Monday, mainly over northern counties. Otherwise mostly dry with sunny spells. Becoming cloudy with some patchy light rain and drizzle in the evening. Maximum temperature 11C.

Outlook for Tuesday to Thursday:

Mainly dry, mild, and cloudy on Tuesday. Early rain on Wednesday, then brighter with the odd shower. Dry, bright Thursday morning, rain arriving from the west later.

Long-range outlook:

Across the UK, a broad northwest to southeast split is most likely next weekend. The northwest is likely to be more unsettled with low-pressure systems moving in at times, bringing periods of strong winds and showers or longer spells of rain.

In the southeast, high pressure will have a greater influence, with more settled, drier weather as a result.

Temperatures overall are likely to be near to or slightly above normal, but there remains the chance of some overnight frost.

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