<script type="text/javascript">
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
  {// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
  xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
else
  {// code for IE6, IE5
  xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }
xmlhttp.open("GET","data.xml",false);
xmlhttp.send();
xmlDoc=xmlhttp.responseXML; 

...

The first line of the XML page is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>