var loadingIcon = '<img src="images/13x13progress.gif" alt="Loading..." border="0" />';

function ajaxFailure(response){
	//alert('Ajax Request Failure');
}
function getObj(t)
{
	return $(t);
}
function makeLoading(t)
{
	getObj(t).innerHTML = loadingIcon;
}
function writeContent(t, c)
{
	getObj(t).innerHTML = c;
}

function updateNews(){
	makeLoading('newsContent');
	var ajax = new Ajax.Request('news.txt', {
		method: 'get',
		onFailure: ajaxFailure,
		onSuccess: function(r){writeContent('newsContent', r.responseText);}
	});
}