If you run MediaWiki software, then you really need to check this plugin out. This paticular plugin allows you to pick specific criteria, the below example shows some of the parameters you can pass:
<DPL>
category=+Africa|Europe
category=Politics and conflicts
ordermethod=category,sortkey
headingmode=ordered
</DPL>
category=+Africa|Europe
category=Politics and conflicts
ordermethod=category,sortkey
headingmode=ordered
</DPL>
You can setup a list of last modified articles, top articles, newly created article.
For full documentation on what parameters are available you can view the DPL Manual at
The official link on MediaWiki’s extension page:
www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DynamicPageList