diff --git a/et_xmlfile/__init__.py b/et_xmlfile/__init__.py
index dca4325bfd6c5f3babf11827c23bfd32a522d76d_ZXRfeG1sZmlsZS9fX2luaXRfXy5weQ==..bd0a3056eb2bf989662cb118c5c1c8731c634167_ZXRfeG1sZmlsZS9fX2luaXRfXy5weQ== 100644
--- a/et_xmlfile/__init__.py
+++ b/et_xmlfile/__init__.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 from .xmlfile import xmlfile
 
 # constants
-__version__ = '1.0.0'
+__version__ = '1.0.1'
 
 __author__ = 'See ATUHORS.txt'
 __license__ = 'MIT'
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index dca4325bfd6c5f3babf11827c23bfd32a522d76d_c2V0dXAucHk=..bd0a3056eb2bf989662cb118c5c1c8731c634167_c2V0dXAucHk= 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 them here.
 
 """
-
+import codecs
 import sys
 import os
 import warnings
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
 
 here = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
 try:
-    with open(os.path.join(here, 'README.rst')) as f:
+    with codecs.open(os.path.join(here, 'README.rst'), encoding="utf-8") as f:
         README = f.read()
 except IOError:
     README = ''