Your mysql settings seems ok. You can use this meta code like:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
Further check mysql column's character type. character set should be 'utf8'
I hope you already save php file without BOM right? If you aren't, check here.
EDIT:
1. Replace below line with your three line code:
mysql_query("SET character_set_results = 'utf8'");
mysql_query("character_set_client = 'utf8'");
mysql_query("character_set_connection = 'utf8'");
mysql_query("character_set_database = 'utf8'");
2. Set document header:
header("content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8");
like this way:
<?php
// Send a raw HTTP header
header ('Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8');
// Declare encoding META tag, it causes browser to load the UTF-8 charset before displaying the page.
echo '<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />';
// Right to Left issue
echo '<body dir="rtl">';
?>
You can apply more option as your solution from here. I hope my above explanation solved your issue.