problema con caracteres en php

[angelo_024]

Hola quisiera saber como puedo resolver un problema con php. Tengo un buscador y me funciona bien el problema viene cuando ingreso una palabra de busqueda con un caracter especial como (¡¿" '...) y me da error: Este es mi codigo

$server = "localhost"; $database = "local"; $db_user = "root"; $db_pass = "a"; $table = "search";
mysql_connect($server, $db_user, $db_pass) or die (mysql_error());
if ($searchterm!=''){
$words=explode(" ",$searchterm);
$countwords=count($words);
if ($countwords==1) {
$_pagi_sql = "select * from $table where artist like '%$searchterm%' or video like '%$searchterm%' or title like '%$searchterm%' or subtitle like '%$searchterm%' or description like '%$searchterm%' or featuring like '%$searchterm%' or keywords like '%$searchterm%' order by posteado desc"; mysql_db_query($database,$_pagi_sql) or die (mysql_error());
} elseif ($countwords>1) {
$_pagi_sql = "select $table.vid_headline_chars,az,artist,video,title,su btitle,description,posteado,featuring,keywords,sea rchtype, match(artist,video,title,subtitle,description,feat uring,keywords,searchtype) against('$searchterm') as coincidencias from $table where match(artist,video,title,subtitle,description,feat uring,keywords,searchtype) against('$searchterm') order by posteado desc"; mysql_db_query($database,$_pagi_sql) or die (mysql_error());
}
}