wp_query in sidebar doesnt show on posts page

hi,
i am running this query in sidebar to get a featured post from a set category.

<?php $recent = new WP_Query('cat=298&showposts=1'); global $wp_query;  $wp_query->in_the_loop = true; $wp_query->is_page = false; $wp_query->is_category = false; ?>
<?php while ($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post(); ?>
<!-- do something -->
<?php endwhile; ?>

my homepage is set to a page page and posts to another page. see pact.lk and pact.lk/timeline

the thing is for some reason the sidebar query does what its supposed to do on any page other than the posts page pact.lk/timeline.

i really don tget it. have tried putting all sort of conditional tags but none work for this page. is_home, is_front_page nothing.

can anyone help out? there was a guy who asked the same thing 8 months ago and no solution came. he solved it doing some other trick with if else logic but he didnt post the solution.

thank you for your help,

Cezar