if ($showrecentarticle=="1"){

    $articles = $DB->query("SELECT article.* FROM ".$db_prefix."article AS article
                                     LEFT JOIN ".$db_prefix."sort AS sort
                                          USING(sortid)
                                     WHERE sort.showinrecent=1 AND article.visible=1
                                     ORDER BY date DESC
                                     LIMIT $recentarticlenum");

if ($showrecentarticle=="1"){

    $articles = $DB->query("SELECT sort.sortid,sort.title as stitle,article.* FROM ".$db_prefix."article AS article
                                     LEFT JOIN ".$db_prefix."sort AS sort
                                          USING(sortid)
                                     WHERE sort.showinrecent=1 AND article.visible=1
                                     ORDER BY date DESC
                                     LIMIT $recentarticlenum");

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
  <tr>
    <td colspan="2"><span class="normalfont"><a href="$phparticleurl/sort.php?sortid=$article[sortid]">$article[stitle]</a>--<a href="$phparticleurl/article.php?articleid=$article[articleid]">$article[title]</a>
      - <font color="$style[datecolor]">$article[date]</font> <font color="$style[timecolor]">$article[time]</font> - $article[author]</span></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">$article[img]<span class="normalfont">$article[description]</span></td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <td height="5"></td>
  </tr>
</table>