Looking for the right theme for a news site

I’m making a WP site for news. I’ve searched many themes, but none had my requirements. Here is a picture I made in paint, just to show you how I’d like my site to look. http://i54.tinypic.com/2u4mvlu.jpg
The Categories must be under the logo and ad on the left. I know there was a plugin for doing that, but what plugin was it?
I need the posts to be in 2 or more columns.
The featured posts should be just like written (shown) in the picture. What plugin should I use for that? Or maybe there is a theme with that feature?
I want to have custom pages in the footer area. Can I make a page, and make it accessible only via link? So I can just put links in the footer.
The place for custom html or text in below the category menu isn’t necessary. So it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I can’t put something like that :). I can’t put a widget, it wont be in that order. This area for custom html should be bigger than other widgets, and it isn’t in the same place as the other widgets.

The colors of the theme should be light, not dark. Any colors are acceptable. I just need to have the same structure as shown in the picture.

So what theme and plugins should I use? Any tips or tricks?