Instead of .encode('utf-8'), use .encode('latin-1').

Can you check encoding by following method:

>>> import sys
>>> sys.getdefaultencoding()
'utf-8'
>>> 

If encoding is ascii then set to utf-8

1. open following file(I am using Python 2.7):

   /usr/lib/python2.7/sitecustomize.py

2. then update following to utf-8

   sys.setdefaultencoding("utf-8")

[Edit 2]

Can you add following in tour code(at start) and then check:-

>>> try:
...     import apport_python_hook
... except ImportError:
...     pass
... else:
...     apport_python_hook.install()
... 
>>> import sys
>>> 
>>> sys.setdefaultencoding("utf-8")
>>> 
>>>

In Python 2

>>> plain_string = "Hi!"
>>> unicode_string = u"Hi!"
>>> type(plain_string), type(unicode_string)
(<type 'str'>, <type 'unicode'>)

^ This is the difference between a byte string (plain_string) and a unicode string.

>>> s = "Hello!"
>>> u = unicode(s, "utf-8")

^ Converting to unicode and specifying the encoding.

In Python 3

All strings are unicode. The unicode function does not exist anymore. See answer from @Noumenon

Here is a simpler method (hack) that gives you back the setdefaultencoding() function that was deleted from sys:

import sys
# sys.setdefaultencoding() does not exist, here!
reload(sys)  # Reload does the trick!
sys.setdefaultencoding('UTF8')

(Note for Python 3.4+: reload() is in the importlib library.)

This is not a safe thing to do, though: this is obviously a hack, since sys.setdefaultencoding() is purposely removed from sys when Python starts. Reenabling it and changing the default encoding can break code that relies on ASCII being the default (this code can be third-party, which would generally make fixing it impossible or dangerous).

PS: This hack doesn't seem to work with Python 3.9 anymore.