Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.0)
Installed from:    SuSE RPMs

Observe the output of the command-line argument --help:

[psy@port-3108:~]$ knode --help
Usage: knode [Qt-options] [KDE-options] [url]

A newsreader for KDE

Generic options:
  --help                    Show help about options
  --help-qt                 Show Qt specific options
  --help-kde                Show KDE specific options
  --help-all                Show all options
  --author                  Show author information
  -v, --version             Show version information
  --license                 Show license information
  --                        End of options

Arguments:
  url                       A 'news://server/group' URL
[psy@port-3108:~]$

According to RFC 1738, there is no such URL syntax as <news://server/group>.  There is only <news:comp.lang.c> (specifying a particular newsgroup by its name), <news:bir1ps$cs2$1@elf.eng.bsdi.com> (specifying a particular message by its Message-ID), or <nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.kernel-traffic/36> (specifying a particular message by its full path on a particular news server).  Also, URLs should be delimited with <…>, not '…'.

I don't know if KNode actually accepts these faulty <news://server/group> URLs, but at the very least it shouldn't be instructing and encouraging people to use them.