//declare the variables
   var ajaxinstance; //create a variable to hold the ajax instance
   var newsrss = ""; //create an empty string for the RSS feed
   var nodes; //store the rss as nodes here temporarily
   var newsitemNodes; //used to store the parsed nodes collection
   var index = 0; //the counter for the news items list - always set to 0 on page refresh
   var stringindex = 0; //the counter for the news ticker
   var itemcount = 0; //how many nodes are in the array.
   var title = ""; //title of the news story
   var url = ""; //url of the news story
   
   //create the Ajax Object (this will be used to read the RSS)
   function createAjaxObj()
   {
				var httprequest=false
				if (window.XMLHttpRequest){ // if Mozilla, Safari etc
				httprequest=new XMLHttpRequest()
				if (httprequest.overrideMimeType)
				httprequest.overrideMimeType('text/xml')
				}
				else if (window.ActiveXObject){ // if IE
				try {
				httprequest=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
				} 
				catch (e){
				try{
				httprequest=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
				}
				catch (e){}
				}
				}
				return httprequest
		}
		
		//get the RSS Feed itself
		function ajaxGetRSS()
		{
				ajaxinstance=createAjaxObj();
				xmlindicator=(arguments.length>0)? 1 : 0;
				var parameters="";
				
				ajaxinstance.open('GET', "/rss.aspx", false);
				
				ajaxinstance.send(null);
				if (xmlindicator)
				{
          			newsrss = ajaxinstance.responseXML;
				}
				else
				{
          			newsrss = ajaxinstance.responseText;
				} 
				ajaxParseRSS();  
    	}
    
    function ajaxParseRSS()
    {
     if (undefined == newsitemNodes)
     {
      
      if (typeof DOMParser == "undefined") 
      { 
        DOMParser = function (){}
        DOMParser.prototype.parseFromString = function (str, contentType) 
        {
          if (typeof ActiveXObject != "undefined") 
          { 
            var d = new ActiveXObject("MSXML.DomDocument"); 
            d.loadXML(str); 
            return d; 
          } 
          else if (typeof XMLHttpRequest != "undefined") 
          {
            var req = new XMLHttpRequest; 
            req.open("GET", "data:" + (contentType || "application/xml") + ";charset=utf-8," + encodeURIComponent(str), false); 
            if (req.overrideMimeType) 
            { 
              req.overrideMimeType(contentType); 
            } 
            req.send(null); 
            return req.responseXML; 
          } 
        } 
      }
      var nodes = (new DOMParser()).parseFromString(newsrss, "text/xml");
      // get a reference to the root-element "rss"
      var root = nodes.getElementsByTagName('rss')[0];
      // get reference to "channel" element
      var channels = root.getElementsByTagName("channel");
      // now get all "item" tags in the channel
      var newsitemNodes = channels[0].getElementsByTagName("item");
      }
      // in the "item" we have a description, so get that
      var titles = newsitemNodes[index].getElementsByTagName("title");
      var descriptions = newsitemNodes[index].getElementsByTagName("description");
      var urls = newsitemNodes[index].getElementsByTagName("link");
      url = urls[0].firstChild.nodeValue;
 
      itemcount = newsitemNodes.length;
      title = titles[0].firstChild.nodeValue;
      title = title.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '').replace("&lt;p&gt;","").replace("&lt;/p&gt;","").replace("<p>","").replace("</p>","") ;
      var temp = titles[0].firstChild.nodeValue.replace("&lt;p&gt;","").replace("&lt;/p&gt;","").replace("<p>","").replace("</p>","");
      var	newsStartPos = 0//temp.indexOf("<title>") + 7;
	  var	newsEndPos = temp.lentgh;//temp.indexOf("</title>", newsStartPos ) ;
					
      title = temp.substring(newsStartPos, newsEndPos).replace(/&#39;/, "'");
     
 
      if (index < (itemcount -1))
      {
        index +=1;
      }
      else
      {
        index = 0;
      }
      
      window.setTimeout("ajaxParseRSS()", (90*temp.length +4000));
      if (url.toLowerCase().indexOf("default.aspx") < 0 ) 
      {
      	displayticker();
      }
 
    }
    
    function displayticker()
    {
      stringindex+=1
			var hasInnerText = (document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].innerText != undefined) ? true : false;
			var elem = document.getElementById("RSSticker");
				if(!hasInnerText)
				{
   				 	elem.textContent = title.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '').substring(0,stringindex) + "*";
   			 		elem.href= url;
				} 
				else
				{
					RSSticker.innerText = title.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '').substring(0,stringindex) + "*";
					RSSticker.href= url;				
				}
			if (title == "News")
			{
				window.setTimeout("displayticker()",1)			
			}
			else if(stringindex<title.length)
			{
        		window.setTimeout("displayticker()",90)
			}
			else
			{
				stringindex=0
			}
 
    }