diff --git a/resources/recipes/economist.recipe b/resources/recipes/economist.recipe
index 95b4a2ae05..17bf4c8c20 100644
--- a/resources/recipes/economist.recipe
+++ b/resources/recipes/economist.recipe
@@ -22,8 +22,11 @@ class Economist(BasicNewsRecipe):
 
     oldest_article = 7.0
     cover_url = 'http://www.economist.com/images/covers/currentcoverus_large.jpg'
-    remove_tags = [dict(name=['script', 'noscript', 'title', 'iframe', 'cf_floatingcontent']),
-            dict(attrs={'class':['dblClkTrk', 'ec-article-info']})]
+    remove_tags = [
+            dict(name=['script', 'noscript', 'title', 'iframe', 'cf_floatingcontent']),
+            dict(attrs={'class':['dblClkTrk', 'ec-article-info']}),
+            {'class': lambda x: x and 'share-links-header' in x},
+    ]
     keep_only_tags = [dict(id='ec-article-body')]
     needs_subscription = False
     no_stylesheets = True
diff --git a/resources/recipes/economist_free.recipe b/resources/recipes/economist_free.recipe
index 321c7d29ce..f4a4efd932 100644
--- a/resources/recipes/economist_free.recipe
+++ b/resources/recipes/economist_free.recipe
@@ -16,8 +16,11 @@ class Economist(BasicNewsRecipe):
 
     oldest_article = 7.0
     cover_url = 'http://www.economist.com/images/covers/currentcoverus_large.jpg'
-    remove_tags = [dict(name=['script', 'noscript', 'title', 'iframe', 'cf_floatingcontent']),
-            dict(attrs={'class':['dblClkTrk', 'ec-article-info']})]
+    remove_tags = [
+            dict(name=['script', 'noscript', 'title', 'iframe', 'cf_floatingcontent']),
+            dict(attrs={'class':['dblClkTrk', 'ec-article-info']}),
+            {'class': lambda x: x and 'share-links-header' in x},
+    ]
     keep_only_tags = [dict(id='ec-article-body')]
     no_stylesheets = True
     preprocess_regexps = [(re.compile('</html>.*', re.DOTALL),
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pml/pmlconverter.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pml/pmlconverter.py
index a0814ee0dd..3fdd627d7e 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pml/pmlconverter.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pml/pmlconverter.py
@@ -499,14 +499,15 @@ class PML_HTMLizer(object):
 
         indent_state = {'t': False, 'T': False}
         adv_indent_val = ''
+        # Keep track of the number of empty lines
+        # between paragraphs. When we reach a set number
+        # we assume it's a soft scene break.
+        empty_count = 0
 
         for s in self.STATES:
             self.state[s] = [False, ''];
 
         for line in pml.splitlines():
-            if not line:
-                continue
-
             parsed = []
             empty = True
             basic_indent = indent_state['t']
@@ -592,7 +593,12 @@ class PML_HTMLizer(object):
                 parsed.append(text)
                 c = line.read(1)
 
-            if not empty:
+            if empty:
+                empty_count += 1
+                if empty_count == 3:
+                    output.append('<p>&nbsp;</p>')
+            else:
+                empty_count = 0
                 text = self.end_line()
                 parsed.append(text)
                 
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/tag_view.py b/src/calibre/gui2/tag_view.py
index 3fe6e3cf93..d7b9c62ed1 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/tag_view.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/tag_view.py
@@ -1186,14 +1186,12 @@ class TagBrowserMixin(object): # {{{
     def do_user_categories_edit(self, on_category=None):
         db = self.library_view.model().db
         d = TagCategories(self, db, on_category)
-        d.exec_()
-        if d.result() == d.Accepted:
+        if d.exec_() == d.Accepted:
             db.prefs.set('user_categories', d.categories)
             db.field_metadata.remove_user_categories()
             for k in d.categories:
                 db.field_metadata.add_user_category('@' + k, k)
-            db.data.sqp_initialize(db.field_metadata.get_search_terms(),
-                                        optimize=True)
+            db.data.sqp_change_locations(db.field_metadata.get_search_terms())
             self.tags_view.set_new_model()
             self.tags_view.recount()
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/library/prefs.py b/src/calibre/library/prefs.py
index b125fe9067..2921e1c936 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/prefs.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/prefs.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import json
 
 from calibre.constants import preferred_encoding
 from calibre.utils.config import to_json, from_json
+from calibre import prints
 
 class DBPrefs(dict):
 
@@ -17,7 +18,11 @@ class DBPrefs(dict):
         self.db = db
         self.defaults = {}
         for key, val in self.db.conn.get('SELECT key,val FROM preferences'):
-            val = self.raw_to_object(val)
+            try:
+                val = self.raw_to_object(val)
+            except:
+                prints('Failed to read value for:', key, 'from db')
+                continue
             dict.__setitem__(self, key, val)
 
     def raw_to_object(self, raw):
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser.py b/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser.py
index 6333cfde06..4e4da9d1df 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser.py
@@ -121,6 +121,9 @@ class SearchQueryParser(object):
     def __init__(self, locations, test=False, optimize=False):
         self.sqp_initialize(locations, test=test, optimize=optimize)
 
+    def sqp_change_locations(self, locations):
+        self.sqp_initialize(locations, optimize=self.optimize)
+
     def sqp_initialize(self, locations, test=False, optimize=False):
         self._tests_failed = False
         self.optimize = optimize