Invalid XML Characters accessing URL

I am using a PHP script that reads in an xml file, assigns it to a variable, and then converts it to a PHP array. When I access the xml's URL using the following code, I get Invalid Character Errors:

<?php
    $handle = fopen($url, "r");

    if($handle){
        while(!feof($handle)){
            $xml = fgets($handle, 4096);

        }
        fclose($handle);
    }
     // OR
    $xml = simplexml_load_file($url);
?>

However, if I copy and paste the xml output and assign it to a variable directly in the script, it correctly converts the xml data to a PHP array.

Here's the xml url

<?php
$url = "http://ift.tt/10LNSqx";
?>

I need it to work by pulling the xml directly from the URL. Any ideas?