use encoding "utf-8";                          # For text containing ISO-8859-1 and/or UTF-8 characters

##</code><code>##

open (OUT, ">:encoding(UTF-8)", ">$outfile") || die "Unable to open $outfile for writing.";

##</code><code>##

$ENV{NLS_LANG} = 'AMERICAN_AMERICA.AL32UTF8';    # Handle UTF-8 characters

##</code><code>##

my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:Oracle:$DATABASE", $USERNAME, $PASSWORD,
          { RaiseError => 1, AutoCommit => 0, ora_charset => "UTF8" })
          or die ($DBI::errstr . "\n");

##</code><code>##

$twig = XML::Twig->new( twig_handlers => $handlers, output_encoding => 'utf-8' );