The News Matrix: Monday 2 September 2013

Councils sell off personal details

Local councils have sold the personal information of individuals to more than 2,700 private companies – including lobbyists, estate agents and fast-food outlets. At least 307 councils sold details from the edited electoral register – comprising voters’ names and addresses – to private firms in transactions worth more than £250,000. MORE

Nazi parade grounds restored for €70m

Germany is wrestling with a difficult problem as it decides what to do with the crumbling parade grounds of Nuremberg built by the Nazis. Officials have introduced a controversial €70m renovation project, fearing that some structures are in a dangerous state. MORE

Hillsborough police kept victims’ money

The police force accused of a cover-up over Britain’s worst sporting disaster in history profited by keeping money found among the dead and dying at Hillsborough, i can reveal. South Yorkshire Police held on to cash from the ground for almost three years before banking it. MORE

Man forgotten in jail for 23 years

Prison authorities have discovered a man who should have been released in 1989 still in Governor Stenio Gomes prison in the north of the country. The unnamed 80-year-old has been locked up in a psychiatric unit since 1960 for an undisclosed crime. MORE

Diplomats’ spending doubles

Britain’s diplomats have been splashing out at George Osborne’s family firm and Fortnum & Mason as part of £40m spending spree. The annual cost for Government-issued credit cards reached £18m. MORE

Shot Malala opens Birmingham library

Malala Yousafzai, the teenager who was shot in the head by the Taliban for championing women’s right to education in Afghanistan, is to formally open the £188m Library of Birmingham tomorrow.

Britain is ‘addiction capital of Europe’

The UK is the “addiction capital of Europe”, with some of the highest rates of drug and alcohol misuse, a new report warns. Alcohol and drug abuse cost the UK £21bn and £15bn respectively, and the increasing addiction is fuelling the breakdown of society, according to the Centre for Social Justice think-tank. MORE

Panel will review Morsi constitution

Egypt’s interim president has appointed a 50-member committee, dominated by secular politicians and public figures, to review proposed amendments to the country’s Islamist-drafted constitution. The constitution was enacted under the ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Wonderful weather for blackberries

A bumper crop of blackberries will be good news for wildlife such as dormice and foxes, the plant charity Plantlife says. Brambles are one of the beneficiaries of this year’s cold winter and warm, dry summer.

Smallest town to reopen

The tiny Wyoming town of Buford, which was sold at auction last year by its sole resident, will officially re-open this week as a hub for the sale of coffee distributed by its new owner.

Round-the-world crews set sail

Spectators lined the Thames to wave off around 650 crew members as they set out on the 11-month Clipper Round the World Yacht Race from Tower Bridge in London.

Dieters go for gold in Dubai

Dieters in Dubai have hit the scales at the end of a five-week challenge – with the biggest loser dropping enough to earn him more than $3,200 (£2,000) worth of gold.