Major alfabet soup problems: servlets+mySQL,+javascript combined

Hi,
I'm having some serious parsing problems with "special" characters (mostly french stuff):
First, the data goes from a html form through my servlet to a mySQL database (I parse for the ' first). Secondly, I need to get it from there and either put in a html page, or use the data as parameters to a javascript (a popup).
Now, the characters go nicely to the database an come back nicely from the database and I can get them in the javascript popup, where it's used in a new form (to update it).
*But*, after this, it goes wrong: the data goes to the database all screwed up: appearantly the characters used in the javascript don't come through correctly and get stored incorrectly. I'm adding the parsing and other code:
parsing code (sorry for the mess, you'll get the idea)

package FormatUtils;
import ViolinStrings.*;
public final class Formatting {
private Formatting() {
// not instances allowed...
}
public static String convertToJavaScript(String oldstring) {
/* Prepare strings for use as parameters in a javascript. Single quote's are converted, as well as line breaks
* and special characters (mainly french stuff).
*/
if (oldstring != null) {
  String newstring = convertSpecials(oldstring);
  newstring = Strings.change(newstring,"'","\\'");
  newstring = Strings.change(newstring,"\n","\\n");
  newstring = Strings.change(newstring,"\f","\\f");
  newstring = Strings.change(newstring,"\r","\\r");
  newstring = Strings.change(newstring,"\"",""");
  return newstring;
  } else {
  return null;
  }
}
public static String convertToSQL(String oldstring) {
  /* This  method "prepares" strings for use in an SQL Query. Single quotes are adjusted.
  * We assume that special character conversion is done at output time.
  */
  if (oldstring != null) {
  String newstring;
  newstring = Strings.change(oldstring,"'","\\'");
  return newstring;
  } else {
  return null;
  }
  }
  public static String convertToHTML(String t){
  /* we take care of special characters first, then convert remaining linebreaks
  * by adding a <br> tag.
  */
  if (t != null) {
  String result = convertSpecials(t);
  result = Strings.change(result,"\n","<br>\n");
  return result;
  } else {
  return null;
  }
}
private static String convertSpecials(String s) {
/* This will convert all non-crucial characters to their html equivalent. */
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
   int n = s.length();
   for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
      char c = s.charAt(i);
      switch (c) {
         case '"': sb.append("""); break;
         case '�': sb.append("à");break;
         case '�': sb.append("À");break;
                      ... (more of the same) ...
         default:  sb.append(c); break;
      }
   }
   return sb.toString();
}
}

The servlet code looks like:

And the javascript like this:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">

</SCRIPT>
... HTML STUFF ...
<a href="#" onClick="details('${newsitem.headline_en}',...)">${newsitem.headline_en}</a>

Where the ${...} tags are inserted automatically...