/* EXAMPLE: <p>Bed & Breakfast</p> --> <p>Bed & Breakfast</p>
& &
" " (unless ENT_NOQUOTES is set)
' ' or ' (ENT_QUOTES must be set)
< <
> > */
<?php
$new = htmlspecialchars("<a href='test'>Test</a>", ENT_QUOTES);
echo $new; // <a href='test'>Test</a>
?>
$source = 'url of page with text with special characters';
$html = file_get_contents($source,0);
$html = mb_convert_encoding($html, 'UTF-8', mb_detect_encoding($html, 'UTF-8, ISO-8859-1', true));