Hi hervet
Just saw your answere ...
Well, in the first few days I didn't had the problem (or thought it was gone), but now I have it again.

Few details:
- I have 21 categories (main cats) and about 150 articles
- I'm using the "by subject" view and the problem is just in the front modul's page.
- 2 categories are missing (all permitions are o.k.)
- 1 category is present though is empty and marked not to show in front page.
- Apach 1.3.33 on FreeBSD 4.7, php - 4.3.4, Zend ...
Site is in hebrew so it's not the place to see the problem....

Are the news still in your database ?

Yes, News are in the database and can be seen in the classic view, or when going to the categories
just the "by topic" view makes the problem.

I tripled checked all preferences, but after digging a lot had to give up and report a bug.
(2 missing categories, one present though empty from articles and marked not to show in front page)