DateFormat df1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ");

String string1 = "2001-07-04T12:08:56.235-0700";

Date result1 = df1.parse(string1);

​

DateFormat df2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX");

String string2 = "2001-07-04T12:08:56.235-07:00";

Date result2 = df2.parse(string2);

javax.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter.parseDateTime("2010-01-01T12:00:00Z") 

will give you a Calendar object and you can simply use getTime() on it,

if you need a Date object.