title: PHP and character encoding problem with Â character
body: <p>I'm having a problem where PHP (5.2) cannot find the character 'Â' in a string, though it is clearly there.</p>
  
  <p>I realize the underlying problem has to do with character encoding, but unfortunately I have no control over the source content. I receive it as UTF-8, with those characters already in the string.</p>
  
  <p>I would simply like to remove it from the string. strpos(), str_replace(), preg_replace(), trim(), etc. Cannot correctly identify it. </p>
  
  <p>My string is this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>"Â  Â  Â  A lot of couples throughout the World "
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If I do this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$string = str_replace('Â','',$string);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I get this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>"Â� Â� Â� A lot of couples throughout the World"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I even tried utf8_encode() and utf8_decode() before the str_replace, with no luck.</p>
  
  <p>What's the solution? I've been throwing everything I can find at it...</p>