def normalize_whitespace(text, to_space=u'\u00a0', remove=u'\u200b'):
    """Normalize whitespace in a string, by replacing special spaces by normal
    spaces and removing zero-width spaces."""
    if not text:
        return text
    for each in to_space:
        text = text.replace(each, ' ')
    for each in remove:
        text = text.replace(each, '')
    return text