Excuse a flippant answer, but I have to say 'poorly.' It's a hobbyhorse of mine, but GN has gotten progressively worse over the last 2 years, thanks to a mixture of SEO and slow development. Considering the legal costs of news delivery (settlements and ongoing litigation with publishers) I think more is being spent on keeping it functional than on development.
Krishna Bharat Creator of Google News Used His own fork of The Hilltop algorithm is an algorithm. I don't know it work but if you are going to create a relevance for some news site remember this quote by Mark<p>"A squirrel dying in your front yard may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa."