// required global vars for ticker
			var tickerTextArray;
			var arrayIndex = 0;
			var n = 0;
			var myTimeout;
			var myticker;

			function ticker() {
				myticker = (document.getElementById('ticker')||document.all.ticker||document.ticker)
				if(tickerTextArray){
					// if we've gone past the end of the current array text we need to move on to the next item
					if (n > String(tickerTextArray[arrayIndex][2]).length){
						// reset text position index.
						n = 0;
						// increment news item index
						arrayIndex += 1;
						// if we've moved on to a news item that doesn't exist, move back to the first news item
						if (arrayIndex >= tickerTextArray.length) {
							arrayIndex = 0;
						}
					}
					// we're now definitely pointing to the correct array index
					myticker.href = tickerTextArray[arrayIndex][0];  // note that the page will just refresh if there's no href associated with the news item.
					myticker.target = tickerTextArray[arrayIndex][1];
					myticker.innerHTML=left(tickerTextArray[arrayIndex][2],n);
					// if we're not on the last character of the news title, add an underscore
					if (n < String(tickerTextArray[arrayIndex][2]).length){
						myticker.innerHTML+='_';
					}
					// increment text position index
					n+=1;
					// if we've finished writing the current news item, pause for a second
					if (n > String(tickerTextArray[arrayIndex][2]).length){
						myTimeout = setTimeout('ticker()',1500);
					// pause for 50ms between consecutive letters
					} else {
						myTimeout = setTimeout('ticker()',70);
					}
				}
			}

			// called on MouseOver
			function tickerOver() {
				// hold the text as is for as long as the mouse is over it
				clearTimeout(myTimeout);
				// add in the rest of the current news item's title
				myticker.innerHTML=tickerTextArray[arrayIndex][2];
				// increment text position index to correct place now that we have all of the text in place.
				n = String(tickerTextArray[arrayIndex][2]).length;
			}

			// function to mimmic functionality of VBScript's Left() function
			function left(str,n){
				if (n <= 0)
				    return "";
				else if (n > String(str).length)
				    return str;
				else
				    return String(str).substring(0,n);
			}