diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/html.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/html.py
index afef1291d3..e9b4d06de4 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/html.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/html.py
@@ -573,7 +573,10 @@ class Processor(Parser):
                 style.tail = '\n'
                 path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(self.save_path()), *(style.get('href').split('/')))
                 self.resource_map[path] = style.get('href')
-                open(path, 'wb').write(getattr(sheet, 'cssText', sheet).encode('utf-8'))
+                raw = getattr(sheet, 'cssText', sheet)
+                if isinstance(raw, unicode):
+                    raw = raw.encode('utf-8')
+                open(path, 'wb').write(raw)
         return Parser.save(self)
     
     def populate_toc(self, toc):
diff --git a/src/calibre/library/test.py b/src/calibre/library/test.py
index 3065e4eec0..1a81755971 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/test.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/test.py
@@ -72,6 +72,8 @@ class DBTest(unittest.TestCase):
             self.assertEqual(getattr(self.db, x)(2), val)
             
         self.db.set_authors(3, ['new auth'])
+        self.db.refresh_ids([3])
+        self.assertEqual('new auth', self.db.authors(2))
         self.assertEqual(self.db.format(3, 'txt', index_is_id=True), 'test')
         
     
diff --git a/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py b/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py
index 13d7d0eb19..c7fb812508 100644
--- a/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py
+++ b/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py
@@ -541,8 +541,10 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(object, LoggingInterface):
         npos = max(si, gi)
         if npos < 0:
             npos = pos
-        
-        return src[:npos+1]+u'\u2026'
+        ans = src[:npos+1]
+        if isinstance(ans, unicode):
+            return
+        return ans+u'\u2026' if isinstance(ans, unicode) else ans + '...'