diff --git a/recipes/al_jazeera.recipe b/recipes/al_jazeera.recipe
index 0474af1064..ed7957dccf 100644
--- a/recipes/al_jazeera.recipe
+++ b/recipes/al_jazeera.recipe
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
 __license__ = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2009-2010, Darko Miletic <darko.miletic at gmail.com>'
 
@@ -35,6 +37,20 @@ class AlJazeera(BasicNewsRecipe):
                    'meta', 'base', 'iframe', 'embed']),
     ]
 
+    recipe_specific_options = {
+        'days': {
+            'short': 'Oldest article to download from this news source. In days ',
+            'long': 'For example, 0.5, gives you articles from the past 12 hours',
+            'default': str(oldest_article)
+        }
+    }
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        BasicNewsRecipe.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
+        d = self.recipe_specific_options.get('days')
+        if d and isinstance(d, str):
+            self.oldest_article = float(d)
+
     feeds = [(u'Al Jazeera English',
               u'http://www.aljazeera.com/xml/rss/all.xml')]
 
diff --git a/recipes/independent.recipe b/recipes/independent.recipe
index 91989467cd..6076d506dd 100644
--- a/recipes/independent.recipe
+++ b/recipes/independent.recipe
@@ -40,6 +40,20 @@ class TheIndependentNew(BasicNewsRecipe):
     encoding = 'utf-8'
     compress_news_images = True
 
+    recipe_specific_options = {
+        'days': {
+            'short': 'Oldest article to download from this news source. In days ',
+            'long': 'For example, 0.5, gives you articles from the past 12 hours',
+            'default': str(oldest_article)
+        }
+    }
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        BasicNewsRecipe.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
+        d = self.recipe_specific_options.get('days')
+        if d and isinstance(d, str):
+            self.oldest_article = float(d)
+
     keep_only_tags = [
         dict(id=['articleHeader', 'main']),
         classes('headline sub-headline breadcrumb author publish-date hero-image body-content'),
diff --git a/recipes/livemint.recipe b/recipes/livemint.recipe
index 2a77beb54a..10e285c302 100644
--- a/recipes/livemint.recipe
+++ b/recipes/livemint.recipe
@@ -143,9 +143,7 @@ class LiveMint(BasicNewsRecipe):
             # remove empty p tags
             raw = re.sub(
                 r'(<p>\s*)(<[^(\/|a|i|b|em|strong)])', '\g<2>', re.sub(
-                    r'(<p>\s*&nbsp;\s*<\/p>)|(<p>\s*<\/p>)|(<p\s*\S+>&nbsp;\s*<\/p>)', '', re.sub(
-                        r'(?=<h2>\s*Also\s*Read).*?(?<=</h2>)', '', raw
-                    )
+                    r'(<p>\s*&nbsp;\s*<\/p>)|(<p>\s*<\/p>)|(<p\s*\S+>&nbsp;\s*<\/p>)', '', raw
                 )
             )
             if '<script>var wsjFlag=true;</script>' in raw:
@@ -186,10 +184,11 @@ class LiveMint(BasicNewsRecipe):
             for span in soup.findAll('span', attrs={'class':'exclusive'}):
                 span.extract()
             for al in soup.findAll('a', attrs={'class':'manualbacklink'}):
-                pa = al.findParent('p')
+                pa = al.findParent(['p', 'h2', 'h3', 'h4'])
                 if pa:
                     pa.extract()
-            if wa := soup.find(**classes('autobacklink-topic')):
+            wa = soup.find(**classes('autobacklink-topic'))
+            if wa:
                 p = wa.findParent('p')
                 if p:
                     p.extract()
diff --git a/recipes/new_scientist_mag.recipe b/recipes/new_scientist_mag.recipe
index 87d15cb44a..7984b24769 100644
--- a/recipes/new_scientist_mag.recipe
+++ b/recipes/new_scientist_mag.recipe
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
 '''
 newscientist.com
 '''
@@ -70,8 +72,20 @@ class NewScientist(BasicNewsRecipe):
         classes('ArticleHeader__SocialWrapper AdvertWrapper ReadMoreWithImage ArticleTopics')
     ]
 
+    recipe_specific_options = {
+        'issue': {
+            'short': 'Enter the Issue Number you want to download ',
+            'long': 'For example, 3498'
+        }
+    }
+
     def parse_index(self):
-        soup = self.index_to_soup('https://www.newscientist.com/issues/current/')
+        issue_url = 'https://www.newscientist.com/issues/current/'
+        d = self.recipe_specific_options.get('issue')
+        if d and isinstance(d, str):
+            issue_url = 'https://www.newscientist.com/issue/' + d
+        
+        soup = self.index_to_soup(issue_url)
         div = soup.find('div', attrs={'class':'ThisWeeksMagazineHero__CoverInfo'})
         tme = div.find(**classes('ThisWeeksMagazineHero__MagInfoHeading'))
         self.log('Downloading issue:', self.tag_to_string(tme))