I posted HERE about the topicid bug in News 1.4 - it's a real PITA if you or your users submit news via the cool app w.bloggar.

I've finally come up with a work around - not perfect but it saves a lot of time by not having to go into the database every time a 'non selected topic' is posted.

Just go into the admin section, news, topics. Create a topic. Name it whatever. I named mine "Xoops News 1.4 Bug".

Then go into your DB manager (phpmyadmin or whatever you use) and browse _topics (xoops_topic if you used the standard) find your new topic, and assign it topicid "1".

This way, every time someone who has omitted the topic, and News 1.4 throws it into topicid 1, you'll at least be able to see the post and edit it!

Hope this saves someone else some time!