OpenLayers WFS Layer with OpenLayers.Request.Get

HTML

<script src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/openlayers/2.11/OpenLayers.js"></script>
<body onload="init()">
    <p>OpenLayers WFS with invisible 10px stroke to make selection easier
        <div id="map"></div>
</body>

CSS

#map {
    width: 100%;
    height: 500px;
}

JavaScript

var map;
var layer, wms, selectControl;

function init() {
    map = new OpenLayers.Map('map');
    wms = new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS(
        "OpenLayers WMS", "http://vmap0.tiles.osgeo.org/wms/vmap0", {
        layers: 'basic'
    });

    layer = new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("WFS", {


        styleMap: new OpenLayers.StyleMap({
            "default": new OpenLayers.Style({
                "pointRadius": 3,
                fill: true,
                fillColor: "#8d006a",
                strokeColor: "#000000",
                strokeOpacity: 0,
                strokeWidth: 10
            })
        })


    });

    map.addLayers([wms, layer]);
    map.setCenter(new OpenLayers.LonLat(146.7, -41.8), 6);

    OpenLayers.Request.GET({
        url: 'http://demo.opengeo.org/geoserver/wfs',
        params: {
            service: 'WFS',
            version: '1.0.0',
            request: 'GetFeature',
            typeName: 'ne_10m_populated_places',
            featureNS: "http://openstreemap.org",
            bbox: '137.9109375,-54.98359375,155.4890625,-28.61640625'
            // using bbox for the request because the layer has a huge amount of features
        },
        //proxy: "/cgi-bin/proxy.cgi?url=",
        success: function (response) {
            var gmlReader = new OpenLayers.Format.GML({
                extractAttributes: true
            });
            var features = gmlReader.read(response.responseText);
            layer.addFeatures(features);

        }
    });



    selectControl = new OpenLayers.Control.SelectFeature(map.layers[1], {
        onSelect: onFeatureSelect,
        onUnselect: onFeatureUnselect
    });

    map.addControl(selectControl);
    selectControl.activate();



}

function onPopupClose(evt) {
    selectControl.unselect(selectedFeature);
}

function onFeatureSelect(feature) {
    selectedFeature = feature;
    popup = new OpenLayers.Popup.FramedCloud("chicken",
    feature.geometry.getBounds().getCenterLonLat(),
    new...