Oscars 2015: 7 news stories you missed while everyone was obsessed with Hollywood's big love-in

The news doesn't stop, even when the stars are out for the Oscars

The Oscars awards ceremony wasn't the only thing happening over the weekend (Getty Images)

Gender equality speeches and glamorous red carpet dresses gripped the showbiz world – however there are other, arguably more important, news stories that you might have missed.

'Cash for access' scandal

Former foreign secretaries Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind deny wrongdoing amid accusations that they offered services to private firms for cash. They have since referred themselves to Parliament’s standards watchdog.

Sir Malcolm – Tory MP for Kensington and Chelsea – is reported to have said in secretly-filmed footage that he could arrange “useful access” to British ambassadors for a fee up to £8,000 for half a day’s work.

Jack Straw has already been suspended by the Labour Party, while Sir Malcolm insisted he had done nothing wrong (Getty)

Also, in the video filmed by Daily Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches reporters, Mr Straw appears to say: “So normally, if I’m doing a speech or something, it’s £5,000 a day, that’s what I charge.”

Mr Straw, Labour MP for Blackburn, said he would not take on the role while he remained in Parliament and emphasised that the discussions only referred to after he leaves in May.

He told Radio 4 he was “scrupulous” in observing all Parliamentary rules but had referred himself to the Commissioner for Standards “because of the way this appears”.

Mr Rifkind said: “These are very serious allegations. They are unfounded and I'm going to fight them with all my strength.”

Al Shabaab video

Security is on high alert in the 400-store Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, after a video purportedly from militant group Al Shabaab in Somalia calls for ‘Westgate-style’ attacks on US shopping centres in America.

The gang with links to al-Qaeda is also calling for destruction of malls in Canada and Westfield shopping centres and Oxford Street in London. More than 60 people died in the Westgate Mall massacre in 2013.

Isis schoolgirls

Three teenagers are believed to have set out to join the so-called Islamic State by travelling to Syria via Turkey during half term.

Metropolitan Police officers have arrived in Turkey to trace Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15 – who attend Bethnal Green Academy in east London and flew to Istanbul together on Tuesday.

Kazida, 16, Amira, 15, and Shamima, 15, (left to right) (Met Office)

Hussen Abase said of his daughter Amira: “We miss you. We cannot stop crying. Please think twice. Don’t go to Syria.”

Ukip

Nearly half of Ukip voters have said they are “a little prejudiced” against people of other races, compared to only 26 per cent of the population who admit to the same thing – according to new research by YouGov.

Ex-Ukip councillor Rozanne Duncan (image taken from www.democracy.thanet.gov.uk)

Ex-councillor Rozanne Duncan was expelled from the party, claiming she was “no racist” and that she does not regret saying that she has a “problem with people with negroid features”.

'Suicide' bombing

A girl believed to have been as young as seven died with five others in what is thought of as a suicide bombing in north-east Nigeria yesterday.

Around 19 others were taken to hospital for injuries in the town of Potiskum after the latest attack involving a child, which have been blamed on militant group Boko Haram.

Crisis in Ukraine

A bomb has killed two people and injured at least 10 in Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city outside the conflict zone, amid an unstable ceasefire. Four suspects have been detained.

Ukrainian investigators at the site of an explosion in Kharkiv (EPA)

Kiev says it cannot start withdrawing weapons from the front line in eastern regions of the country as it claims pro-Russian separatists are still attacking their positions.

Indo-Brazilian relations

An Indonesian ambassador to Brazil has been recalled after diplomatic relations between the two countries have hit a low following the execution of a Brazilian national by firing squad for drug trafficking.

Ambassador Toto Riyanto was excluded from a credentials ceremony by the South American country as Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira was killed last month without having access to a priest to read his last rites.

Indonesia is also involved in a dispute with Australia over two Australians in the “Bali Nine” drug trafficking ring who are due to be executed this month.