#Paste the following underneath existing configuration in the [mysqld] section of /etc/my.cnf
#TEXT BEGINS
init-connect = 'SET NAMES utf8'
character-set-server=utf8
collation-server=utf8_general_ci
character-set-client=utf8
skip-character-set-client-handshake
#TEXT ENDS

#Verify output of query below on MySQL against sample output given here
mysql> show variables where variable_name LIKE "character_set%" OR  variable_name LIKE "collation%";
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| Variable_name            | Value                      |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| character_set_client     | utf8                       |
| character_set_connection | utf8                       |
| character_set_database   | utf8                       |
| character_set_filesystem | binary                     |
| character_set_results    | utf8                       |
| character_set_server     | utf8                       |
| character_set_system     | utf8                       |
| character_sets_dir       | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ |
| collation_connection     | utf8_general_ci            |
| collation_database       | utf8_general_ci            |
| collation_server         | utf8_general_ci            |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
11 rows in set (0.02 sec)

END-OF-FILE