use strict;
use warnings;

use HTML::Entities;
use Encode;

for my $line ( <DATA> )
{
    # This is a no-op on plain &s
    my $utf8 = HTML::Entities::decode($line);
    print Encode::encode_utf8($utf8);
    my $proper = HTML::Entities::encode($utf8); # OR encode_numeric()
    print $proper;
}

__DATA__
Purus Accumsan Felis &#8240; Maecenas Nibh &theta; Eget Phasellus & Mi Amet.  Odio Amet && Purus.  Mi Ullamcorper Lorem Eget Nibh.

http://www.example.com/?name=John&residence=Vatican+City&job=Pope