Hi, jvaran!
That file seems bog-standard. Soooo... it could be important for us to know which version of SMF you upgraded FROM.
If the index "newsFile" isn't being defined, I'd suggest that the upgrade failed and it might be worth retrying. But, that might depend on which version you were using, before you upgraded.
Edit: Just been discussing this, with dear old Shambles. He's had an idea that you might have something weird in your "news" settings.
Can you go to Admin > News settings and check what's there?