category filter on module?

Not sure if this is already possible or maybe you could suggest a workaround... here's the situation.

I have 2 modules on the home page. I will have 3 categories. News, Cats (for example), Dogs (For example) . I want one module to only show the latest post in the "news" category which is easy. But I want the 2nd module to show the latest posting from all other categories except "News". The reason is that if I have a module that shows latest news category and a module that shows the latest posts without specifying a category Both modules will display the same post creating a duplicate on the home page. And there doesn't seem to be a way to select multiple categories in the module when selecting which category to display.

Thanks
Mark