FARC Shoots Down Coca Spraying Plane

BOGOTA, Colombia, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Left-wing Colombian rebels shot down a small police airplane near the Venezuelan border on Friday as it sprayed coca crops with defoliants, killing the Colombian pilot, police said.

The attack happened in Norte de Santander province in northeast Colombia where Marxist insurgents and far-right paramilitary militias fight over control of land used in the Andean country's lucrative drug trade.