--- formatting.php.ori	2009-11-18 19:21:21.343750000 +0100
+++ formatting.php	2009-11-18 20:12:14.875000000 +0100
@@ -433,8 +433,13 @@
 	}
 
 	// Attempt to strip the bad chars if requested (not recommended)
-	if ( $strip && function_exists( 'iconv' ) ) {
-		return iconv( 'utf-8', 'utf-8', $string );
+	if ( $strip ) {
+		if ( function_exists( 'mb_convert_encoding' ) ) {
+			return mb_convert_encoding( $string, 'utf-8', 'utf-8' );
+		}
+		if ( function_exists( 'iconv' ) ) {
+			return iconv( 'utf-8', 'utf-8//ignore', $string );
+		}
 	}
 
 	return '';