Weird Characters Rendering in Firefox but Not IE

[maxabean]

So I have a simple include file (a footer) that renders some odd preceding characters:

I am getting some odd characters appearing in the beggining of an include when rendered in firefox (v 1.5x on XP Pro). The characters are: 

These are not appearing in IE6

Any ideas on what is causing this?

The include line:
<?php
include_once ('rootdir/filedir/filename.php');
?>

This is not occuring for other included files. This is the last include on the page.

Include file source:

</div></div>
<div id="footer">
<div id="submenu">
<ul>
<li><a href="registry.php" <?php if ($thisPage=="Registry") echo " class='active' "; ?>title="Home">Registry</a></li>
<li> - <a href="pictures.php" <?php if ($thisPage=="Pictures") echo " class='active' "; ?>title="Pictures">Pictures</a></li>
<li> - <a href="contact.php" <?php if ($thisPage=="Contact") echo " class='active' "; ?>title="Contact Us">Contact us</a></li>
</ul>
<span class="clearfix"> </span>
</div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">

if(typeof sIFR == "function"){
sIFR();
};
</script>

<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "accountcode";
urchinTracker();
</script>

</body>
</html>


Any ideas?

Thanks!

[keissfootball]

open your file with hex editor and delete first 3 utf characters ;) and don't use notepad !

[maxabean]

Thank you! Worked perfectly.

[goughy000]

i had this once before.. did you use microsoft expression to make any part of the page?

i got round it by opening it with notepad and copying everything into a new document and delting the old one and renaming the new one to the old one... i think i just lost myself