Update

src/altk/comm/engine/Broadcast.java

@@ -807,12 +807,13 @@ public abstract class Broadcast
 		{
 			if (haltReason != null)
 			{
-				statusBf.append("<reason>" + haltReason
+				// Escaping '&' and '<' in haltReason before enclosing it in <reason> tag
+				statusBf.append("<reason>" + Util.xmlEscape(haltReason)
 				        + "</reason>\r\n");
 			}
 			if (stateErrorText != null)
 			{
-				statusBf.append("<error_text>" + stateErrorText
+				statusBf.append("<error_text>" + Util.xmlEscape(stateErrorText)
 				        + "</error_text>");
 			}
 		}

src/altk/comm/engine/Util.java

@@ -4,6 +4,17 @@ import java.util.Properties;
 
 public class Util
 {
+	/**
+	 * Escape xml sensitive characters '<' and '&' in argument str with appropriate "&xxx;".
+	 * @param str
+	 * @return str with '<' and '&' escaped so it is appropriate to be embeeded as
+	 *             text in an xml/html tag.
+	 */
+	static public String xmlEscape(String str)
+	{
+		return str.replace("&", "&amp;").replace("<", "&lt;");
+	}
+	
     static public String getStringParameter(String name, Properties config)
     {
         return getStringParameter(name, config, null);