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If you replace the News module that comes with XOOPS with the latest version (News 1.13) you can set viewing and submission permissions from within the module's admin.
For example, you create 2 groups in XOOPS admin - 'Football' and 'Tennis' and allow them both access to News module. You add users to these groups.
Then in News admin you create 2 categories - Football News and Tennis News.
In the 'Permissions' tab of News admin, you use checkboxes to set the permissions for who can approve news that is submitted to each category, who can submit news to it and who can view it. For example, the 'view permissions' section would look similar to this:
View permissions
----------------
Anonymous Users [.] Football News [.]Tennis News
Football [X] Football News [.]Tennis News
Tennis [.] Football News [X]Tennis News
Instructions on installing News 1.13 are included with the module and I believe you can upgrade from earlier versions of News if you already have a lot of items.
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