Improve error handling and fix counter logic in news function

[DepthStrider-x]

This PR introduces the following improvements:

• Added fetch_xml() helper function to handle network errors safely and prevent crashes.
• Added get_text_or_default() to avoid AttributeError when XML tags are missing.
• Fixed off-by-one issue in counter logic using enumerate().
• Removed variable shadowing in loop.
• Added if __name__ == "__main__" guard to make the script import-safe.

These changes improve reliability and readability without altering the intended functionality of the script.