diff --git a/docs/Makefile.am b/docs/Makefile.am
index 1cfa38dc80..ae2673ca9b 100644
--- a/docs/Makefile.am
+++ b/docs/Makefile.am
@@ -236,20 +236,14 @@ $(srcdir)/hvsupport.html.in: $(srcdir)/hvsupport.pl $(api_DATA) \
 	$(AM_V_GEN)$(PERL) $(srcdir)/hvsupport.pl $(top_srcdir)/src > $@ \
 		|| { rm $@ && exit 1; }
 
-# xsltproc seems to add the xmlns="" attribute to random output elements:
-# use sed to strip it out, as leaving it there triggers XML errors during
-# further transformation steps
 news.html.in: \
 	  $(srcdir)/news.xml \
 	  $(srcdir)/news-html.xsl
 	$(AM_V_GEN)$(XSLTPROC) --nonet \
 	    $(srcdir)/news-html.xsl \
 	    $(srcdir)/news.xml \
-	  >$@-tmp \
-	    || { rm -f $@-tmp; exit 1; }; \
-	  sed 's/ xmlns=""//g' $@-tmp >$@ \
-	    || { rm -f $@-tmp; exit 1; }; \
-	  rm -f $@-tmp
+	  >$@ \
+	    || { rm -f $@; exit 1; };
 EXTRA_DIST += \
 	$(srcdir)/news.xml \
 	$(srcdir)/news.rng \
diff --git a/docs/news-html.xsl b/docs/news-html.xsl
index 2b02578cb9..b9f624cff0 100644
--- a/docs/news-html.xsl
+++ b/docs/news-html.xsl
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
-<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
+<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
+                xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
+                xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
   <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" encoding="UTF-8"/>
 
   <!-- This XSLT stylesheet can be applied to the XML version of the release