Having browsed the source code I don't think this is possible in v 1.4.3
I have altered this to do it myself. If you have the same problem then here is what you need to do:
Open this file
core/components/articles/article.class.php
Replace this line of code (line 268 ) :
$uri = rtrim($containerUri,'/').'/'.$year.'/'.$month.'/'.$day.'/'.$this->get('alias')
With this one
$uri = rtrim($containerUri,'/').'/'.$this->get('alias');
I scoured the source looking for other references to the URI and couldn't find any so this should do what it says on the tin with no issue.
If you have already created news articles then you will need to re-save each one for the change to be reflected.
IMPORTANT: This is a quick fix. If you update articles then this change will be lost.
[ed. note: scorchsoft last edited this post 14 years, 9 months ago.]