protected static function _intlToAscii($str)
    {
        if (class_exists('Transliterator')) {
            if (!isset(self::$_transliterator)) {
                self::$_transliterator = Transliterator::create(
                    'Any-Latin; Latin-ASCII'
                );
            }

            if (!is_null(self::$_transliterator)) {
                /* Returns false on error. */
                return self::$_transliterator->transliterate($str);
            }
        }

        return false;
    }