[Tigga]

Actually I think you may be able to make the news work without even editing the newthread.php file. If you would like to try this out, here is what you would do...
Open your myvbindex.php file and look for the news query:

PHP Code:

  $getnews = $DB_site->query("SELECT thread.threadid,thread.title,replycount,postusername,postuserid,thread.dateline,views,thread.iconid,votenum,votetotal,postid,pagetext,allowsmilie,showsignature,signature".iif($shownewsavatar,",avatarpath,NOT ISNULL(avatardata) AS hascustom,customavatar.dateline AS avatardateline ","")." ".iif($shownewsicon,',thread.iconid as iconid,icon.title as icontitle,icon.iconpath as iconpath','')."
                    FROM thread 
                    LEFT JOIN post ON (thread.threadid=post.threadid) 
                    LEFT JOIN user ON (user.userid=post.userid) 
                    ".iif ($shownewsavatar,"LEFT JOIN avatar ON (avatar.avatarid=user.avatarid) 
                    LEFT JOIN customavatar ON (customavatar.userid=user.userid) ","")." 
                    ".iif ($shownewsicon,'LEFT JOIN icon ON icon.iconid=thread.iconid','')."
                    WHERE forumid=$newsforum AND isnews='Y' 
                    ORDER BY thread.threadid DESC $newsmax"); 


Replace that with:

PHP Code:

  $getnews = $DB_site->query("SELECT thread.threadid,thread.title,replycount,postusername,postuserid,thread.dateline,views,thread.iconid,votenum,votetotal,MIN(postid),pagetext,allowsmilie,showsignature,signature ".iif($shownewsavatar,",avatarpath,NOT ISNULL(avatardata) AS hascustom,customavatar.dateline AS avatardateline ","")." ".iif($shownewsicon,',thread.iconid as iconid,icon.title as icontitle,icon.iconpath as iconpath','')."
                    FROM thread 
                    LEFT JOIN post ON (thread.threadid=post.threadid) 
                    LEFT JOIN user ON (user.userid=post.userid) 
                    ".iif ($shownewsavatar,"LEFT JOIN avatar ON (avatar.avatarid=user.avatarid) 
                    LEFT JOIN customavatar ON (customavatar.userid=user.userid) ","")." 
                    ".iif ($shownewsicon,'LEFT JOIN icon ON icon.iconid=thread.iconid','')."
                    WHERE forumid=$newsforum AND open<>10 
                    GROUP BY thread.threadid
                    ORDER BY thread.threadid DESC $newsmax"); 


There was a problem before with random posts sometimes being displayed on the homepage if the newthread.php file isn't modified, but I'm pretty sure if the query was done that way it should work. If not let me know and I'll see what you would need to change in your newthread.php file instead.