diff --git a/feedreader/__init__.py b/feedreader/__init__.py
index 5866371..4f766e0 100644
--- a/feedreader/__init__.py
+++ b/feedreader/__init__.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 try:
     VERSION = __import__('pkg_resources') \
         .get_distribution('sherlock').version
-except Exception, e:
+except (Exception):
     VERSION = 'unknown'
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/feedreader/feeds/rss20.py b/feedreader/feeds/rss20.py
index b9dbfc5..8048b6f 100644
--- a/feedreader/feeds/rss20.py
+++ b/feedreader/feeds/rss20.py
@@ -22,7 +22,10 @@ def author(self):
     
     @property
     def description(self):
-        return unicode(self._xml.description).strip()
+        if(isinstance(self._xml.description, str)):
+            return self._xml.description.strip()
+        else:
+            return self._xml.description.encode('utf8').strip()
     
     def _process_links(self):
         # <media:thumbnail url="http://th04.deviantart.net/fs48/300W/f/2009/207/d/7/d7400f45d945d29fa1edba98531bc887.jpg" height="399" width="300"/>
diff --git a/feedreader/parser.py b/feedreader/parser.py
index b73adb7..9061e40 100644
--- a/feedreader/parser.py
+++ b/feedreader/parser.py
@@ -1,15 +1,15 @@
 import lxml.objectify
-import httplib
-import urlparse
+import http.client
+import urllib.parse as urlparse
 
-from utils.dates import *
-from feeds import InvalidFeed
+from .utils.dates import *
+from .feeds import InvalidFeed
 
 __all__ = ('ParseError', 'InvalidFeed', 'from_string', 'from_url', 'from_file', 'parse_date')
 
 # TODO: change the feeds to a registration model
-from feeds.atom10 import Atom10Feed
-from feeds.rss20 import RSS20Feed
+from .feeds.atom10 import Atom10Feed
+from .feeds.rss20 import RSS20Feed
 
 feeds = (RSS20Feed, Atom10Feed)
 
@@ -40,9 +40,9 @@ def from_file(fp, *args, **kwargs):
 def from_url(url, **kwargs):
     url = urlparse.urlparse(url)
     if url.scheme == 'https':
-        conn = httplib.HTTPSConnection
+        conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection
     elif url.scheme == 'http':
-        conn = httplib.HTTPConnection
+        conn = http.client.HTTPConnection
     else:
         raise NotImplementedError
     
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ def from_url(url, **kwargs):
     connection.request(method, path, query, headers)
     try:
         response = connection.getresponse()
-    except httplib.BadStatusLine, exc:
+    except (http.client.BadStatusLine, exc):
         raise ParseError('Bad status line: %s' % (exc,))
     
     if response.status != 200:
@@ -71,4 +71,4 @@ def from_url(url, **kwargs):
             return from_url(response.getheader('location'), **kwargs)
         raise ParseError('%s %s' % (response.status, response.reason))
 
-    return from_file(response, base_url=base_url)
\ No newline at end of file
+    return from_file(response, base_url=base_url)
diff --git a/feedreader/utils/dates.py b/feedreader/utils/dates.py
index bc32b38..ea4c072 100644
--- a/feedreader/utils/dates.py
+++ b/feedreader/utils/dates.py
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 __all__ = ('parse_date',)
 
 def parse_date(date_string):
-    date_string = unicode(date_string)
+    if(not isinstance(date_string, str)):
+        date_string = date_string.encode('utf8')
+    date_string = date_string
 
     return dateutil.parser.parse(date_string)
\ No newline at end of file