code: def normaliseURL(url):
      
      url = unicode_safe(url).strip()
      # XXX: brutal hack
      url = unescape(url)
  
      pu = list(urlparse(url))
      segments = pu[2].split('/')
      while segments and segments[0] in ('', '..'):
          del segments[0]
      pu[2] = '/' + '/'.join(segments)
      # remove leading '&' from query
      if pu[4].startswith('&'):
          pu[4] = pu[4][1:]
      # remove anchor
      pu[5] = ""
      return urlunparse(pu)
docs: Normalising
      - strips and leading or trailing whitespace,
      - replaces HTML entities and character references,
      - removes any leading empty segments to avoid breaking urllib2.