Character in Ajax layer and more...?

Hi there,

I am using a simple ajax function which i call like
makeRequest('/content.php?nav=help','content');

    function makeRequest(url,layerName) {
        var http_request = false;

        if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari, ...
            http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
            if (http_request.overrideMimeType) {
                http_request.overrideMimeType('text/xml');
                // See note below about this line
            }
        } else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
            try {
                http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
            } catch (e) {
                try {
                    http_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
                } catch (e) {}
            }
        }

        if (!http_request) {
            alert('Giving up :( Cannot create an XMLHTTP instance');
            return false;
        }
        http_request.onreadystatechange = function() { 
		//alertContents(http_request); 
		output(http_request,layerName);
		};
        http_request.open('GET', url, true);
        http_request.send(null);

    }



		function output(http_request,layerName) {
if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
			//Set the contents of our span element to the result of the asyncronous call.
				 if (http_request.status == 200) {
					document.getElementById(layerName).innerHTML = http_request.responseText;
etc.

Code (markup):

but this

man - woman

Code (markup):

gives me

man ? woman

Code (markup):

in the ajax layer

1/ How do i fix this character issue?

2/ Furthermore how do i use swfobject when it's needed?