OK, so first your version of XML::Parser is _OLD_. Keep it only if you are on Windows (PPM depends on it and it might not be wise to change it).

Then search the site for ways to convert from utf8, there are plenty that work (Encode with 5.8.0, Text::Iconv if you have it, Unicode::* ...

Then (sorry grantm, I did not want to push XML::Twig but they are forcing me too ;--) you can always use XML::Twig with the keep_encoding option that will keep the data in its original encoding.