VB problem while retrieving XML data using XPath

[JumpStarter]

I have a problem while retrieving XML data using XPath.
My XML data contains a few special characters.For eg: i have a sentence which has the special character

∑

which gets translated to the SUM symbol (?). When i retrieve this data using XPath i get a ? instead of the actual text. What i want is to retrieve

∑

as it is as a string.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

JumpStarter