ActionScript 2.0 :: Reading An Xml File And Get URL?

I'm trying to read a url from an xml file and attach an onRelease event to a movieclip that opens the url when clicked.

Code:

var thelink = getValue(findNode(i, "link")).toString();
var thelink2 = "../news/Press Releases/testpdf.pdf";
if (thelink <> "")
{
tempMC.bat.onRelease=function(){ getURL(thelink); }
}

If I use the "thelink" variable as input to the getURL function, I get a "Page not found" error.If I use the "thelink2", it works as expected.When I look in the debugger, "thelink" and "thelink2" are identical!Here is the code for the findNode function. I've had no problems before with this code, so I don't think the problem is there.

Code:
function findNode(node, nodeName)
{
if (node.nodeName==nodeName)

[code]....