utf8 Flag in mod_perl

Greetings,

I've been having some discussions with the mod_perl developers about  
preserving the utf8 flag on Perl strings in various operations. These  
include escape_html(), which seems to remove the utf8 flag (or at least  
to totally hork a string with the flag turned on), and APR::Table. I  
would be grateful for any feedback from folks on how best to handle  
these issues. The relevant discussions are archived here:
  I report the escape_html() issue:
    
http:/​​/​​www.mail-archive.com/​​dev​​%40perl.apache.org/​​ 
msg08065.html

  I request that the issue be addressed in Apache 2's escape_html():
   http://www.mail-archive.com/dev%40perl.apache.org/msg08419.html

  Boris Zentner requests that utf8 be preserved by APR::Table:
   http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=109636746500004&r=1&w=2

Thanks!

David