As of version: 5.8.3-4, the newsreader Gnus is broken: when you start it, instead of doing anything usefule, it simply reports an error. There are a few bug reports on this already; here's one: http://cgi.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=57340.
Anyway, if you usually use Gnus to read and send mail, and cannot figure out how to read and send mail now that it's broken, here's a workaround that will keep you alive until it gets fixed: Read mail with M-x rmail, and send mail with m-x mail. Note that you cannot send mail by typing `m' in Rmail; that method is broken in the same way that Gnus is. Note also that once Gnus is fixed, you can incorporate your rmail file into Gnus by following the instructions in File: gnus, Node: Incorporating Old Mail. I don't know how to read news in Emacs without using Gnus, but of course you can always use a standalone newsreader; it'll probably update your .newsrc properly.
