problems with l10n

I find problems with special chars during the translation of strings.

After creating file /opt/piratebox/share/content/locales/data.it.properties and editing locales.ini, I can use &specialchars; notation in the header strings (welcomeWelcome and such). They get converted in correct accented letters. eg è becomes è

In the footer strings (FooterAbout and others) text is translated correctly, but same special strings don't get converted and are displayed exactly as typed.