Hi,
Not sure if I should report this in trac or not. Seems this function uses a specific "Zenpage" theme option variable - zenpage_zp_index_news. So when not using the "ZenPage" theme, this theme option still takes effect in the function. If you have this checked, but your custom theme does not utilize this variable, the News link points to the front index page, when it should be pointed at news.php. Hope this makes sense....
Comments
The only purpose of this function is to make the news.php page news page 2 so you can have page 1 on the index page.
If you want to use this you can (re)set this option like any other one on the theme directly by using `setOption()`.