function mp_posts_in_cat($id_cat = array('all'),$the_limit = 7, $orderby = 'post_modified',$exclude = array('none')){
       //declare global some wp database variables...
       global $wpdb, $tableposts, $tablepost2cat;

       //build WHERE clause for query (posts in category)
       if($id_cat[0] == 'all') {
           $where = '';
       }
       else {
           $where = '(';
           foreach($id_cat as $cat) {
               $where .= "P2C.category_id = '$cat' OR ";
           }
           $where = substr($where, 0, strlen($where)-4);
           $where .= ') AND ';
       }

       //remove excluded posts from query results
       if(is_array($exclude) && $exclude[0] != 'none') {
           $where .= 'POST.ID != (';
           foreach($exclude as $dontshow) {
               $where .='$dontshow, ';
               $where = substr($where, 0, strlen($where)-2);
           }
           $where .= ') AND ';
       }
       elseif(is_numeric($exclude)) {
           $where .= 'POST.ID != '.$exclude.' AND';
       }

       //Limit clause
       if($the_limit != '' && is_numeric($the_limit)) {
           $the_limit = 'LIMIT '. $the_limit;
       }

       // the query
       $q = "
           SELECT
               P2C.*, POST.ID, POST.post_title, DATE_FORMAT('POST.post_date', '%m %d %y') AS post_date_formatted
           FROM
               $wpdb->posts POST, $wpdb->post2cat P2C
           WHERE
               $where POST.post_status = 'publish' AND POST.ID = P2C.post_id
           GROUP BY
               post_id
           ORDER BY
               POST.$orderby DESC $the_limit
           ";
       // do the query
       $arts = $wpdb->get_results($q);
           if ($arts){
               //prepare output
               foreach ($arts as $art){


               $output .= '<li>'.$art->post_date_formatted.'<a href="'.get_permalink($art->ID).'" title="'.$art->post_title.'">'.$art->post_title.'</a></li>';
               }
           }
       return $output;
   }