Escape "&" in a url from an xml file

Escape "&" in a url from an xml file

I have setup an image rotator using jquery and the cycle plugin.  The images and their links are pulled in from an xml document.  This all works perfectly unless the link url has the & symbol in it ( ie.  http://mysite.com/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5243).  If the & is present slideshow does not appear at all. 

My XML looks like:
<images>
<img>
   <fileName>rotator_auction.jpg</fileName>
   <altTag>Auction</altTag>
   <target>_blank</target>
</img>
<img>
   <fileName>rotator_donate.jpg</fileName>
   <altTag>Donate</altTag>
   <target></target>
</img>
</images>

And the script to pull in the images and links:
jQuery(document).ready(function(){

 //**** SETUP AND OPTIONS ****//
 
var slideSetup = {
xmlLocation: "../assets/img_links.xml", //The path to the XML file
pathToImages: "/assets/images/slider/", //Path to images relative to slideshow page
transitionType: "fade", //More info at http://jquery.malsup.com/cycle/browser.html
transitionSpeed: 1.5, //Duration of transition in seconds. 
slideDuration: 5 //Duration of each slide in seconds.
};
 
 //***********************//
 
 

var xmlLocation = slideSetup.xmlLocation;
var pathToImages = slideSetup.pathToImages;
var transitionType = slideSetup.transitionType;
var transitionSpeed = slideSetup.transitionSpeed*1000;
var slideDuration = slideSetup.slideDuration*1000;
//Get info from XML
jQuery.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: xmlLocation,
dataType: "xml",
success: function(xml) {
jQuery(xml).find('img').each(function() {
var fileName = jQuery(this).find('fileName').text();
var linkUrl = jQuery(this).find('linkUrl').text();
var altTag = jQuery(this).find('altTag').text();
var imgSrc = pathToImages+"/"+fileName;
var target = jQuery(this).find('target').text();
jQuery('<a href="'+linkUrl+'" target="'+target+'"><img src="'+imgSrc+'" alt="'+altTag+'" border="0"  /></a>').appendTo('#slideshow');
});
slideShow(transitionType, transitionSpeed, slideDuration);
}
});
//Slider Options
function slideShow(transitionType, transitionSpeed, slideDuration) {
jQuery('#slideshow').cycle({
       fx:     transitionType,
       speed:  transitionSpeed,
       timeout: slideDuration,
       pager:  '#nav',
slideExpr: 'img'
   });
};
 });//End document.ready