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[JohnCenaFan28]

Police divers have recovered a man's body found near the wreckage of a plane which had crashed into the sea.

The two-seater Piper 38 crashed into the sea near cliffs close to Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire.

Several witnesses saw the light aircraft moments before it plunged into the sea.

The pilot, thought to come from the Teesside area, was the only person on board.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: "A body of a man was recovered by police divers close to the wreck of a plane. A police helicopter landed on rocks and the body was airlifted up to the cliffs before being taken to Scarborough Hospital by an undertaker."

The body has not been formally identified while relatives are informed.

The Coastguard, RNLI and RAF helicopters were involved in the search, which began after a member of the public reported seeing a small aircraft crash into the sea.

Search teams located the stricken aircraft submerged in the water and returned to carry out a more detailed examination.

Holidaymaker Sean Flesher, of Yeadon, near Leeds, was in the Bay Hotel overlooking the sea when he saw the crash.

He told the Scarborough Evening News: "I saw a light aircraft heading into the bay. I thought it was going to disappear around the headland as it was flying so low. The next thing I saw it had plunged into the water."

-Ananova

[JohnCenaFan28]

An American student slit the throat of her British housemate in a Satanic rite, prosecutors told an Italian court.

They alleged Meredith Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was forcibly held down as Amanda Knox and two men attacked her.

The court in Perugia was told Knox's Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito held Miss Kercher. a Leeds University student, down as Rudy Hermann Guede tried to sexually assault her.

Sollecito's lawyer, Luca Maori, said prosecutors "laid out a scenario like from some crime novel," during the seven-hour hearing.

Prosecutors "alleged it was some kind of Satanic rite", with Amanda allegedly first touching Meredith with the point of a knife, then slitting her throat, while Sollecito held her by the shoulders, from behind, Guede held her by an arm and tried to sexually assault the victim, Maori said.

Earlier Knox, 21, had proclaimed her innocence at the closed-door hearing in the Umbrian university town and reportedly wept as she accused police of hitting her on the head and calling her a liar during an interrogation, defence lawyers said.

At his lawyers' request, a fast-track trial is being conducted for Guede. He has acknowledged being in the bedroom where Miss Kercher's body, lying in a pool of blood, was found in November 2007 in the house she rented with Knox.

Fast-track trials can sometimes result in lighter penalties. But prosecutors asked the court to convict Guede, from the Ivory Coast, and mete out Italy's stiffest punishment - life imprisonment. Italy does not have the death penalty.

The court deciding Guede's fate is also hearing arguments to determine if Knox and Sollecito should stand trial for the murder.

A ruling on prosecutors' request for their indictment is expected at the end of October. All three suspects have repeatedly denied any part in Miss Kercher's death.

-Ananova

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[JohnCenaFan28]

Alistair Darling is set to pour billions of pounds into major public works in an attempt to fend off the worst of the economic downturn, he announced.

With the economy sliding towards recession, the Chancellor said he would re-channel public spending into projects that would spur growth.

Official figures are expected to confirm this week that the economy is shrinking for the first time since 1992.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson admitted that the contraction was inevitable, adding that it was impossible to say how long it would last.

But despite increasingly tight public finances, exacerbated by declining tax revenues, Mr Darling pledged to press ahead with spending on major projects that the country needs.

Citing John Maynard Keynes's dictum that governments should spend their way out of an economic downturn, Mr Darling said expenditure would be focused on areas that "make a difference".

"At a time like this, it would be wrong to start taking money out of the economy, in terms of cutting back on spending, in terms of tax," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

"You do not do this when an economy is slowing down.

"Much of what Keynes said still makes sense. You will see us switching our spending priorities to areas that make a difference - housing and energy are classic cases where people are feeling squeezed. They expect the Government to help them. We'll do that."

The strategy will necessitate taking on more debt, as the Chancellor has already signalled he is ready to do. It secures costly new programmes like a new nuclear deterrent, London's £16 billion Crossrail project and the £9.3bn 2012 Olympic games.

-Ananova