makeHttpRequest = function(url,params,result) {
	var http_request = false;
	if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
		http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
	} else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
		try{
			http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
		} catch(e){
			try{
				http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
			} catch (e) {}
		}
	}
	if (!http_request) {
		alert('Unfortunately you browser doesn\'t support XMLHttpRequest.');
		return false;
	}
	
	http_request.onreadystatechange = function() {
		if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
			if(http_request.status == 200) {
				result(http_request.responseText);
			}
		}
	}

	http_request.open('POST', url, true);
	http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
	http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", params.length);
	http_request.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close");
	http_request.send(params);
};

latestNews = function() {
	done = function(response) {
		document.getElementById('newsContent').innerHTML = response +
			"<a href='javascript:olderNews()'>Earlier Posts...</a>";
	}
	makeHttpRequest('/news.php','',done);
}

olderNews = function() {
	var fromDate = document.getElementById('news_oldDate').value;
	done = function(response) {
		document.getElementById('newsContent').innerHTML = 
			"<a href='javascript:latestNews()'>Latest Posts</a><br/><br/>" + response +
			"<a href='javascript:olderNews()'>Earlier Posts...</a>";
	}
	makeHttpRequest('/news.php?fromDate='+fromDate,'',done);
}

latestNews();