Weird behavior after using jQuery load function in IE 9 - php

Question

So i have this code that works in all my browsers but has a weird behavior in IE.
$(document).ready(function () {
//$.ajaxSettings.cache = false;
var refresh = setInterval(function () {
$('div#top_right').load('refresh.php?randval=' + Math.random() * 99999);
}, 5000);
$.ajaxSetup({
// Disable caching of AJAX responses
cache: false
});
});
This reloads my user panel div and checks if there is any new messages and such (and as you can see I tried modifying in for IE caching). This works well with all browsers, even IE, but in IE after the first reload it removes all the href attributes to the links (such as the messages link) in the user panel div. I have no clue why this is happening. Please help?
This is the code for refresh.php:
<?php
session_start();
include_once 'functions.php';
$user = $_SESSION['user'];
$new_message = FALSE;
$new_friend = FALSE;
$new_reply = FALSE;
$query = "SELECT status FROM messages WHERE recip='$user'";
$result = queryMysql($query, "divs");
while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
if($row['status']=='new') $new_message=TRUE;
}
$query2 = "SELECT status from friends WHERE user='$user'";
$result2 = queryMysql($query2, "nezworld");
while($row2=mysql_fetch_assoc($result2)){
if($row2['status']=='pending') $new_friend=TRUE;
}
$query3 = "SELECT status from replies WHERE recip='$user'";
$result3 = queryMysql($query3, "divs");
while($row3=mysql_fetch_assoc($result3)){
if($row3['status']=='new') $new_reply = TRUE;
}
?>
<div id="top_right"><ul id="login2">
<li class="user_nav"><?php echo $user; ?></li>
<abbr title="Home"><a href="index.php" class='white'><li class='icons home'>N</li></a></abbr>
<abbr title="Messages"><a href="message.php?view=<?php echo $user; ?>" class='white'><?php if($new_message){?><li class='icons2 messages2'><?php }else{?><li class='icons2 messages'><?php }?>M</li></a></abbr>
<abbr title="Replies"><a href="replies.php?view=<?php echo $user; ?>" class='white'><?php if($new_reply){?><li class='icons2 replies4'><?php }else{?><li class='icons2 replies2'><?php }?>R</li></a></abbr>
<abbr title="Friend Requests"><a href="friends.php?view=<?php echo $user; ?>" class='white'><?php if($new_friend){?><li class='icons2 friends2'><?php }else{?><li class='icons2 friends'><?php }?>F</li></a></abbr>
<li><a class="submit" class='white' href="logout.php">LOGOUT</a>
</form>
</li>
</ul></div>