Change incorrectly marked "static" variables to "private". These are class variables that should contain unique values for each separate instantiated object.

Presumably this is simply a typo and they were meant to be marked "private" originally
The current UTF checking code causes a segfault on some strings. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1282986/utf-8-validation-in-php-without-using-preg-match. Replace it with the builtin version.
Merge pull request #65 from hyanwong/wikimedia_minor_improvements

Wikimedia minor improvements