To be honest, it could actually be an MS IE error.
IE isn't what most would call a compliant browser. It ignores rules, and interprets others in a way that only IE can. Firefox is by far the most standards compliant browser there is out there. I would validate your code (w3schools.com) and see what happens.
Also, I viewed in Firefox and didn't see anything wrong. What is it not supposed to look like?
The only difference i notice:
Firefox for a brief second (before the applet initializes) will show all yoru news. After the initialization, it looks fine.
IE doesn't stop the white & swirl background like Firefox does. Not sure what you're going for, but the firefox version I'm looking at looks better.
~Brett