diff --git a/core/scrapertools.py b/core/scrapertools.py
index 06f7c6e5..5b6d4bac 100644
--- a/core/scrapertools.py
+++ b/core/scrapertools.py
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ def find_multiple_matches_groups(text, pattern):
 def decodeHtmlentities(data):
     import HTMLParser
     parser = HTMLParser.HTMLParser()
-    return parser.unescape(data).encode('utf-8')
+    return parser.unescape(data)
 
 
 def unescape(text):
diff --git a/core/support.py b/core/support.py
index 53d58836..0484ceb9 100755
--- a/core/support.py
+++ b/core/support.py
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ def scrapeLang(scraped, lang, longtitle):
     return language, longtitle
 
 def cleantitle(title):
-    cleantitle = scrapertools.htmlclean(scrapertools.decodeHtmlentities(title).replace('"', "'").replace('×', 'x').replace('–', '-')).strip()
+    cleantitle = scrapertools.htmlclean(scrapertools.decodeHtmlentities(title).replace('"', "'").replace(u'×', 'x').replace('–', '-')).strip()
     return cleantitle
 
 def scrapeBlock(item, args, block, patron, headers, action, pagination, debug, typeContentDict, typeActionDict, blacklist, search, pag, function, lang):