Magento 1.9 – Fatal Error Due to Missing Class in Admin Menu

Magento newbie here, learning the platform by following a tutorial. I use magento 1.9.3.2. I have looked at all other posts relating this problem and yet it persists. I'm creating a simple menu in admin panel and get the error above. Here's some code:
app\etc\modules\Akhil_News.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
    <config>
    <modules>
      <Akhil_News>
        <active>true</active>
        <codePool>local</codePool>
      </Akhil_News>
    </modules>
</config>

And config.xml in app\code\local\Akhil\News\etc

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <Akhil_News>
            <version>0.0.1</version>
        </Akhil_News>
    </modules>
    <global>
        <helpers>
            <news>
                <class>Akhil_News_Helper</class>
            </news>
        </helpers>
        <resources>
            <news_setup>
                <setup>
                    <module>Akhil_News</module>
                </setup>
                <connection>
                    <use>core_setup</use>
                </connection>
            </news_setup>
            <news_write>
                <connection>
                    <use>core_write</use>
                </connection>
            </news_write>
            <news_read>
                <connection>
                    <use>core_read</use>
                </connection>
            </news_read>
        </resources>
    </global>
</config>

The admin html in app\code\local\Akhil\News\etc

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<config>
    <menu>
        <news module="akhil_news" >
            <title>News</title>
            <sort_order>100</sort_order>
            <children>
                <managenews module="akhil_news">
                    <title>Manage News</title>
                    <sort_order>90</sort_order>
                    <action>admin_news/adminhtml_news</action>
                </managenews>
            </children>
        </news>
    </menu>
</config>

And finally the helper class app\code\local\Akhil\News\Helper\Data.php

 <?php
    
     class Akhil_News_Helper_Data extends Mage_Core_Helper_Abstract
     {
        
     }
?> 

These files should give me a menu with no functionality in admin panel. However the entire admin is throwing this error. I have looked at other posts and,
1.Compilation is disabled
2.Cleared the cache multiple times
3.Most other posts solutions were closing tags or naming of the class.

If I set in app\etc\modules\Akhil_News.xml the module to false, I get a normal page load so I believe the mistakes is in one of the config files but I'm unable to find it so far.