News Headlines - 01 September 2013

▽How Labour derailed the PM's Syria plan - UK Politics - UK - The Independent

Opposition's insistence on 'evidence then decision' led to Commons defeat. James Cusick reports from behind closed doors

▽Pressure on Cameron for new vote on Syria strikes - Telegraph

David Cameron is under increasing pressure to return to Parliament for another vote on British military action against Syria after the Americans postponed missile strikes for at least a week.

▽Merkel forced on defensive in TV debate - FT.com

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, was forced on the defensive for the first time in the German election campaign on Sunday evening, when she was sharply attacked for her austerity policies in the eurozone by Peer Steinbrück, her Social Democrat challenger. He accused her of forcing Greece into a “vicious circle” of recession and unsustainable debt, saying that what was really needed was a “second Marshall Plan” to rescue the worst-hit members of the eurozone in the crisis.

▽Radiation levels spike near contaminated Fukushima tank | The Verge

Radiation levels near a contaminated storage tank at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant spiked to new highs in readings taken this weekend. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) says it recorded the worrying levels ―― the highest of which reached 1,800 millisieverts per hour ―― in four new locations Saturday.

▽BBC News - Miniature 'human brain' grown in lab

The pea-sized structures reached the same level of development as in a nine-week-old foetus, but are incapable of thought. The study, published in the journal Nature, has already been used to gain insight into rare diseases.