XML parse invalid character error

[singlephile]

I've added a google map to my site and when a user registers it asks for their address which it then geocodes and adds to the map (eg finds the latitude and longitude). Now normally this is in the US and i don't have a problem, but now and again i'll have someone register from, say, germany and the xml returned by google contains foreign characters and the parsing crashes and gives and "Invalid character" error. Here's an example of the xml:

 

http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=Marktstr,M%F6nchengladbach,Germany&output=xml&key=ABQIAAAABF49M8jz0TUmr8jXDZwxsRS8-uVPCF0YzVBqSr0MDYVbXh-zfhT27vCkbr5-6YvIIf7aVUFJNXewFw

 

Any ideas out there?

[corbin]

The xml file looks correct so it has to have something to do with the php script handling it, or the client side stuff....

[singlephile]

Here's the code i use to parse:

 

      if (! ($xmlparser = xml_parser_create()) )

      {

      die ("Cannot create parser");

      }

      xml_set_element_handler($xmlparser, "start_tag", "end_tag");

      xml_set_character_data_handler($xmlparser, "tag_contents");

 

 

      $filename = 'http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=Marktstr,M%F6nchengladbach,Germany&output=xml&key=ABQIAAAABF49M8jz0TUmr8jXDZwxsRS8-uVPCF0YzVBqSr0MDYVbXh-zfhT27vCkbr5-6YvIIf7aVUFJNXewFw';

 

        if (!($fp = fopen($filename, "r"))) { die("cannot open ".$filename); }

     

      while ($data = fread($fp, 4096)){

        $data=eregi_replace(">"."[[:space:]]+"."< ",">< ",$data);

        if (!xml_parse($xmlparser, $data, feof($fp))) {

            $reason = xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xmlparser));

            $reason .= xml_get_current_line_number($xmlparser);

            die($reason);

      }