International characters and rtf

When I compile a document using the multimarkdown --> rtf option, y Norwegian characters come out wrong. It works perfectly with Multimarkdown --> latex.
Images do not seem to make it through to rtf - am I doing something wrong, or is it not possible to use images with rtf?
If not - any suggestions for how to keep options open for export to both latex and MSWord (that some publishers still insist on. grrrr)?