diff --git a/src/utils/str.py b/src/utils/str.py
index e411eacf0..d1f1b0f31 100644
--- a/src/utils/str.py
+++ b/src/utils/str.py
@@ -450,7 +450,11 @@ def format(s, *args, **kwargs):
     def sub(match):
         char = match.group(1)
         if char == 's':
-            return str(args.pop())
+            token = args.pop()
+            if isinstance(token, unicode) or isinstance(token, str):
+                return token
+            else:
+                return unicode(token)
         elif char == 'i':
             # XXX Improve me!
             return str(args.pop())
diff --git a/src/utils/web.py b/src/utils/web.py
index d550ecdef..da8d6521b 100644
--- a/src/utils/web.py
+++ b/src/utils/web.py
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ class HtmlToText(HTMLParser, object):
         self.data.append(data)
 
     def handle_entityref(self, data):
-        self.data.append(chr(htmlentitydefs.name2codepoint[data]))
+        self.data.append(unichr(htmlentitydefs.name2codepoint[data]))
 
     def getText(self):
         text = ''.join(self.data).strip()