Hi Phovos - welcome to sNews and thanks for posting the problem you were having.
I haven't had this problem when importing the snews17.sql file (provided in the SQL folder with the package) into phpMyAdmin - it always runs sucfdessfully to the end for me.
In that file, the first INSERT string for the articles table is as follows:
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (1, 'Welcome to sNews 1.7', 'welcome-to-snews-17', '<p>If you\'re seeing this article, you have installed <strong>sNews 1.7</strong> and it is connected to the database.</p><p>It is <strong>strongly</strong> suggested that you <a href="login/" title="Login">login</a> right away, then go to the page <em>Settings</em>. At the bottom of that page you\'ll find <em>Change Username and Password</em>. <strong>Do it</strong> and make the password hard to guess.</p><p>After doing that, feel free to delete this article and start building your site.</p>[break]<p>If you stumble along the way, check the <a href="http://snewscms.com/faq/faq/" title="Troubleshooting and FAQ">Troubleshooting and FAQ</a> page. If you\'re still having trouble search the <a href="http://snewscms.com/forum/" title="sNews CMS Forum">sNews CMS Forum</a> before posting your question, it may already be answered. Still lost? We\'ll be there to assist you in any way we can.</p><p>Thank you for choosing sNews. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.</p>', NOW(), 1, 1, '', '', 'YES', 'YES', 'NO', 1, '', '', 'YES', 'NO', '1', 'YES', 'NO');
... and in it, you will notice that the apostrophes are preceded by a backward slash, which should eliminate the problem you described.
Have you tried populating a database using the snews17.sql file?