create a div for the news ticker, and set it to what should be shown for browsers with JS disabled
<div id="newsTicker">
js is disabled
</div>
then use js to change the innerHTML on page load:
script type="text/javascript">
function setTicker() {
document.getElementById('newsTicker').innerHTML = '<ul id=\"news\">\n\
<li>You can have a series of new items, either containing links...</li>\n\
<li><a href=\"http://www.forthwebsolutions.com\">Link to Forth Web Solutions Web Site</a></li>\n\
<li>Or alternatively you can have a news item with just text</li>\n\
<li>After the last news message, the list continues from the start</li>\n\
</ul>';
}
</script>
</head>
<body onLoad="setTicker()">
<div id="newsTicker">
js is disabled
</div>
this way, the div will only show the ticker list if js is enabled.