Here's two examples (note that in first example, backticks also had no effect, for some reason):

• include/db.php:

  $config['db']['persistent'], PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => $config['db']['errormode'] ); $db = new PDO( $config['db']['uri'], $config['db']['user'], $config['db']['pass'], $attribs ); $db->query("SET NAMES 'utf8'"); $db->query("SET CHARACTER SET 'utf8'"); } catch (PDOException $e) { print "Error!: " . $e->getMessage() . "
  "; die(); } function dbGetEngine() { global $config; return substr($config['db']['uri'], 0, strpos($config['db']['uri'], ':')); } ?>

• include/config.php:

It gets worse, try adding space prior to the asterisk :/

Just removing the asterisk fixes stuff up. Thing is, I believe it looks nicer with the asterisk ... and it's definitely a bug :-)