diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index abc3138..73902f0 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -352,7 +352,7 @@ dnl
 
 AC_MSG_CHECKING([for a curses library containing mvchgat])
 oldLIBS=$LIBS
-for curseslib in curses ncurses ; do
+for curseslib in ncursesw curses ncurses ; do
     LIBS="$oldLIBS -l$curseslib"
     AC_TRY_LINK([
 #include <curses.h>
diff --git a/iftop.c b/iftop.c
index 43329f8..0d46fc5 100644
--- a/iftop.c
+++ b/iftop.c
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 #include <signal.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
+#include <locale.h>
 
 #include "iftop.h"
 #include "addr_hash.h"
@@ -763,6 +764,8 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
     pthread_t thread;
     struct sigaction sa = {};
 
+    setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
+
     /* TODO: tidy this up */
     /* read command line options and config file */   
     config_init();