diff --git a/addon/facebook/facebook.php b/addon/facebook/facebook.php
index 9e41065dea..545779cd5f 100644
--- a/addon/facebook/facebook.php
+++ b/addon/facebook/facebook.php
@@ -908,7 +908,7 @@ function fb_consume_stream($uid,$j,$wall = false) {
 
 				$likedata['body'] = sprintf( t('%1$s likes %2$s\'s %3$s'), $author, $objauthor, $plink);
 				$likedata['object'] = '<object><type>' . ACTIVITY_OBJ_NOTE . '</type><local>1</local>' . 
-					'<id>' . $orig_post['uri'] . '</id><link>' . xmlify('<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="' . $orig_post['plink'] . '">') . '</link><title>' . $orig_post['title'] . '</title><content>' . $orig_post['body'] . '</content></object>';  
+					'<id>' . $orig_post['uri'] . '</id><link>' . xmlify('<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="' . xmlify($orig_post['plink']) . '" />') . '</link><title>' . $orig_post['title'] . '</title><content>' . $orig_post['body'] . '</content></object>';  
 
 				$item = item_store($likedata);			
 			}
diff --git a/boot.php b/boot.php
index 8e8a2bc210..b94000b607 100644
--- a/boot.php
+++ b/boot.php
@@ -2788,16 +2788,23 @@ function lang_selector() {
 
 
 if(! function_exists('parse_xml_string')) {
-function parse_xml_string($s) {
-	if(! strstr($s,'<?xml'))
-		return false;
-	$s2 = substr($s,strpos($s,'<?xml'));
+function parse_xml_string($s,$strict = true) {
+	if($strict) {
+		if(! strstr($s,'<?xml'))
+			return false;
+		$s2 = substr($s,strpos($s,'<?xml'));
+	}
+	else
+		$s2 = $s;
 	libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
+
 	$x = @simplexml_load_string($s2);
-	if(count(libxml_get_errors()))
+	if(! $x) {
+		logger('libxml: parse: error: ' . $s2, LOGGER_DATA);
 		foreach(libxml_get_errors() as $err)
 			logger('libxml: parse: ' . $err->code." at ".$err->line.":".$err->column." : ".$err->message, LOGGER_DATA);
-	libxml_clear_errors();
+		libxml_clear_errors();
+	}
 	return $x;
 }}
 
diff --git a/include/items.php b/include/items.php
index dfe92378ae..a5d430aa22 100644
--- a/include/items.php
+++ b/include/items.php
@@ -180,7 +180,11 @@ function construct_activity_object($item) {
 
 	if($item['object']) {
 		$o = '<as:object>' . "\r\n";
-		$r = parse_xml_string($item['object']);
+		$r = parse_xml_string($item['object'],false);
+
+
+		if(! $r)
+			return '';
 		if($r->type)
 			$o .= '<as:object-type>' . xmlify($r->type) . '</as:object-type>' . "\r\n";
 		if($r->id)
@@ -188,8 +192,15 @@ function construct_activity_object($item) {
 		if($r->title)
 			$o .= '<title>' . xmlify($r->title) . '</title>' . "\r\n";
 		if($r->link) {
-			if(substr($r->link,0,1) === '<') 
+			if(substr($r->link,0,1) === '<') {
+				// patch up some facebook "like" activity objects that got stored incorrectly
+				// for a couple of months prior to 9-Jun-2011 and generated bad XML.
+				// we can probably remove this hack here and in the following function in a few months time.
+				if(strstr($r->link,'&') && (! strstr($r->link,'&amp;')))
+					$r->link = str_replace('&','&amp;', $r->link);
+				$r->link = preg_replace('/\<link(.*?)\"\>/','<link$1"/>',$r->link);
 				$o .= $r->link;
+			}					
 			else
 				$o .= '<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="' . xmlify($r->link) . '" />' . "\r\n";
 		}
@@ -206,7 +217,9 @@ function construct_activity_target($item) {
 
 	if($item['target']) {
 		$o = '<as:target>' . "\r\n";
-		$r = parse_xml_string($item['target']);
+		$r = parse_xml_string($item['target'],false);
+		if(! $r)
+			return '';
 		if($r->type)
 			$o .= '<as:object-type>' . xmlify($r->type) . '</as:object-type>' . "\r\n";
 		if($r->id)
@@ -214,8 +227,12 @@ function construct_activity_target($item) {
 		if($r->title)
 			$o .= '<title>' . xmlify($r->title) . '</title>' . "\r\n";
 		if($r->link) {
-			if(substr($r->link,0,1) === '<') 
+			if(substr($r->link,0,1) === '<') {
+				if(strstr($r->link,'&') && (! strstr($r->link,'&amp;')))
+					$r->link = str_replace('&','&amp;', $r->link);
+				$r->link = preg_replace('/\<link(.*?)\"\>/','<link$1"/>',$r->link);
 				$o .= $r->link;
+			}					
 			else
 				$o .= '<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="' . xmlify($r->link) . '" />' . "\r\n";
 		}
diff --git a/mod/events.php b/mod/events.php
index 052c0ef603..bdc4b8d871 100644
--- a/mod/events.php
+++ b/mod/events.php
@@ -159,8 +159,8 @@ function events_post(&$a) {
 		$arr['body']          = format_event_bbcode($event);
 
 
-		$arr['object'] = '<object><type>' . ACTIVITY_OBJ_EVENT . '</type><title></title><id>' . $uri . '</id>';
-		$arr['object'] .= '<content>' . format_event_bbcode($event) . '</content>';
+		$arr['object'] = '<object><type>' . xmlify(ACTIVITY_OBJ_EVENT) . '</type><title></title><id>' . xmlify($uri) . '</id>';
+		$arr['object'] .= '<content>' . xmlify(format_event_bbcode($event)) . '</content>';
 		$arr['object'] .= '</object>' . "\n";
 
 		$item_id = item_store($arr);