sub UTF8_latin1
{ # UTF-8 to latin1 regex from XML::TiePYX (thanks to mirod)
my($text) = @_;
$text =~ s{([\xc0-\xc3])(.)}{
  my $hi = ord($1);
  my $lo = ord($2);
  chr((($hi & 0x03) <<6) | ($lo & 0x3F))
 }ge;
return $text;
}

##</code><code>##

foreach my $node (@$nodes) {
        $node->{cdata} = UTF8_latin1($node->{cdata}); # ADDED
        my $link = $q->a({-href => "$url_base$node->{node_id}"}, $node->{cdata});
        my $node_text = $q->li($link);
        my $author = $authors->{$node->{author_user}};
        $author = UTF8_latin1($author); # ADDED
        $node_text .= ('&nbsp;' x 2) . $q->small(" by $author") if $SHOW_AUTHOR;
        print $node_text;
}