[Logician]

@Frank: All you suggested may be done but it will be pointless because both scripts (newsconfig.php and newsconfig1.php) will compile the same data from the database so although you achieve to have two news columns in one page, the compiled news will be same.

To seperate the news you need to go on hacking the script and modify the news tags too. [edit: just noticed you planned to seperate forums to post news, so you can skip this step]

So it requires a lot of work but it is possible, at least in theory.

@futureal: This script is degisned to pull messages only if they are tagged as news in the original post. So if you are referring a system that the script will automatically pull the news according to post date without author's tagging them, no it's not possible. You need to insert [news] tag to pull a message to your main page and delete the tag to remove it. The script automatically deletes the tag in certain cases too but message date is not one of them.

What you want to achive can be done via the new version of my WebTemplates hack though. (Recent beta version doesnt support this feature yet). Or you may want to check other news scripts released here. I dont know if any of them support what you asked but there are nice scripts around so you can find one with that feature.