function toggleNewsItem(event, newsItem){

/*	some older browsers (I'm looking at you IE6) do not implement DOM 2,
	so we need to check whether preventDefault() is available.  if not,
	use the return value to emulate preventDefault().
 */

	if(event.preventDefault)	event.preventDefault();
	else						event.returnValue=false;
	$("a#show_"+newsItem).toggle();
	$("a#hide_"+newsItem).toggle();
	$("div#"+newsItem).toggle(500);
}