How to store special character (Mathamatical symbols) in Mysql.

[Mohan S]

Hi,
I'm using mysql server 5.1. Also I'm using JSP, Spring(MVC) and hibernate in my application for windows platform (Window XP and later version).
I want to store special charaters (Mathamatical operators and scientific notation charater) like ∅∆Β ∞ √ ∑ ≥ ≠ ≤ ≈ μ ϒ ∏. But these chars are stored as ? in the DB.
Till now I've tried following.
1. I've used connection url like
jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/test?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=utf-8
2. I've tried modifing my table an corresponding column like
a. ALTER TABLE `test`.`mytable` COLLATE = utf8_general_ci ; and
b. ALTER TABLE `test`.`mytable` COLLATE = utf8_general_ci ;

Can anybody please help me to let me know what all changes I need to do to store and retrive these chars from DB.
-Thanks in advance
Mohan