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here's how I handled that since I did not want my opening page to resolve in a sub-directory.
I wanted recent formum topics as the most important. I then wanted the latest news with a listing of the other news topics. The perfect solution was the Spotlight module. It will display the full most recent news item with links to other news topics. This could be the first feature on your home page instead of the second, like I have. See what I mean at www.bloggerforum.com