diff --git a/resources/recipes/economist_free.recipe b/resources/recipes/economist_free.recipe
index 7c27764b8d..79c17c5ed8 100644
--- a/resources/recipes/economist_free.recipe
+++ b/resources/recipes/economist_free.recipe
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ class Economist(BasicNewsRecipe):
     description = ('Global news and current affairs from a European perspective.'
             ' Much slower than the subscription based version.')
 
-    oldest_article = 6.5
+    oldest_article = 7.0
     cover_url = 'http://www.economist.com/images/covers/currentcovereu_large.jpg'
     remove_tags = [dict(name=['script', 'noscript', 'title', 'iframe', 'cf_floatingcontent']),
             dict(attrs={'class':['dblClkTrk']})]
@@ -29,8 +29,15 @@ class Economist(BasicNewsRecipe):
         self.feed_dict = {}
         requests = []
         for i, item in enumerate(entries):
-            published   = time.gmtime(item.get('timestamp', time.time()))
             title       = item.get('title', _('Untitled article'))
+            published = item.date_parsed
+            if not published:
+                published = time.gmtime()
+            utctime = datetime(*published[:6])
+            delta = datetime.utcnow() - utctime
+            if delta.days*24*3600 + delta.seconds > 24*3600*self.oldest_article:
+                self.log.debug('Skipping article %s as it is too old.'%title)
+                continue
             link        = item.get('link', None)
             description = item.get('description', '')
             author      = item.get('author', '')
@@ -64,11 +71,6 @@ class Economist(BasicNewsRecipe):
         self.log('Found print version for article:', title)
 
         a = Article(i, title, link, author, description, published, '')
-        delta = datetime.utcnow() - a.utctime
-        if delta.days*24*3600 + delta.seconds > 24*3600*self.oldest_article:
-            self.log.debug('Skipping article %s (%s) from feed %s as it is too old.'%(title, a.localtime.strftime('%a, %d %b, %Y %H:%M'), title))
-            return
-
 
         article = dict(title=a.title, description=a.text_summary,
             date=time.strftime(self.timefmt, a.date), author=a.author, url=a.url)
diff --git a/resources/recipes/independent.recipe b/resources/recipes/independent.recipe
index e9e15e2ba9..de33d64d93 100644
--- a/resources/recipes/independent.recipe
+++ b/resources/recipes/independent.recipe
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ class TheIndependent(BasicNewsRecipe):
     max_articles_per_feed = 25
     encoding = 'latin1'
 
-    remove_stylesheets = True
+    no_stylesheets = True
     #remove_tags_before = dict(name='h1', attrs={'class':'heading'})
     #remove_tags_after  = dict(name='td', attrs={'class':'newptool1'})
     remove_tags = [
@@ -17,33 +17,33 @@ class TheIndependent(BasicNewsRecipe):
        dict(name='div', attrs={'class':'related-articles'}),
        dict(name='div', attrs={'id':['qrformdiv', 'inSection', 'alpha-inner']}),
        dict(name='ul', attrs={'class':'article-tools'}),
-       dict(name='ul', attrs={'class':'articleTools'}),	
+       dict(name='ul', attrs={'class':'articleTools'}),
     ]
 
     feeds          = [
-('UK', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/rss'),
-('World', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/rss'),
-('Sport', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rss'),
-('Arts and Entertainment', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/rss'),
-('Business', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/rss'),
-('Life and Style', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/rss'),
-('Science', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/rss'),
-('People', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/rss'),
-('Media', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/rss'),
-('Health and Families', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/rss'),
-('Obituaries', 
- 'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rss'),
-]
+            ('UK',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/rss'),
+            ('World',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/rss'),
+            ('Sport',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rss'),
+            ('Arts and Entertainment',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/rss'),
+            ('Business',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/rss'),
+            ('Life and Style',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/rss'),
+            ('Science',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/rss'),
+            ('People',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/rss'),
+            ('Media',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/rss'),
+            ('Health and Families',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/rss'),
+            ('Obituaries',
+            'http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rss'),
+    ]
 
     def preprocess_html(self, soup):
         story = soup.find(name='div', attrs={'id':'mainColumn'})