UTF Charset Help Needed

Hello all, We have a problem with German characters in several javascript and php pages. Unfortunately we cannot create a global charset option because it will break the database returned text. Therefore we have to manually enter the HTML code for the text. For example ä would need to be entered as ä. This is fine on normal HTML pages and TPL pages, but it does not work with some of our PHP and javascript pages. For example in php file (see the $_erroMsg line) $redirect_location = $site_url."[login to view URL]"; if($mail_status == true) { $_erroMsg = "Vielen Dank für Ihre Anfrage. Wir bemühen uns, innerhalb von 2 Arbeitstagen zu antworten."; //added by Kb as per requirement as on 20 Jul 2012 $ins_talent = "insert into talent_submission (vName, vEmail, eGender, vCity, vState, vCountry, vPhone, lAboutMe, dEntryDate) values ('".$vName."', '".$vEmail."', '".$_POST['eGender']."', '".$vCity."', '".$vState."', '".$vCountry."', '".$vPhone."', '".addslashes($lMessage)."', '".date_getSystemDateTimeNew()."')"; $rs_talent = $sqlObj->insert($ins_talent); In javascript file: else if([login to view URL]!=[login to view URL]) { alert("Die PasswÄrter stimmen nicht Äberein"); [login to view URL](); return false; } This displays a pop-up but the HTML in the text appears exactly as it is written instead of showing the ä character. Therefore we need help with charset for internal error and alert messages in PHP and javascript. I just need to know how to edit the javascript files and php files to make this work. Thanks!