If you could explain what you are trying to do in more detail not just what you are not getting, it might help.
Are you trying to take X number of news items, and only show 3 at a time through pagination?
If so I would this might be the code you are looking for:
<?php
require("system/config.php");
mysql_connect($connect,$username,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die( "Unable to select database");
$id = $HTTP_GET_VARS['id'];
$rate = 3;
if($id == null)
{
$query = "SELECT * FROM news ORDER BY id DESC";
$row_count=mysql_num_rows(mysql_query($query));
$query = "SELECT * FROM news ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT ". (($id-1)*3) ."," . $rate;
$result=mysql_query($query);
}
mysql_close();
$i=0;
while ($i < $rate) {
$id=mysql_result($result, $i, "id");
$date=mysql_result($result, $i, "date");
$time=mysql_result($result, $i, "time");
$author=mysql_result($result, $i, "author");
$title=mysql_result($result, $i, "title");
$full=mysql_result($result, $i, "full");
echo "<center><table width=60%><tr>";
echo "<td><font color=#000000>$title</font></td></tr><tr>";
echo "<td><font size=1 color=#000000>Posted $date At $time, By $author</font></td></tr><tr>";
echo "<td><font color=#000000>$full</font></td></tr>";
echo "</table></center><br>";
$i++;
}
echo "<center>";
for($j = 0; $j < ceil($row_count/$rate); $j++)
{
echo "<a href=test.php?id=$j>Page $j</a> ";
}
echo "</center>";
?>
No guarentees I did not test this code, and I wrote it quickly.
