diff --git a/_posts/05-03-01-Date-and-Time.md b/_posts/05-03-01-Date-and-Time.md
index 8911c34..f8729f2 100644
--- a/_posts/05-03-01-Date-and-Time.md
+++ b/_posts/05-03-01-Date-and-Time.md
@@ -10,12 +10,12 @@ many date and time related functions in PHP besides DateTime, but it provides ni
 common uses. It can handle time zones, but that is outside this short introduction.
 
 To start working with DateTime, convert raw date and time string to an object with `createFromFormat()` factory method
-or do `new \DateTime` to get the current date and time. Use `format()` method to convert DateTime back to a string for
+or do `new DateTime` to get the current date and time. Use `format()` method to convert DateTime back to a string for
 output.
 {% highlight php %}
 <?php
 $raw = '22. 11. 1968';
-$start = \DateTime::createFromFormat('d. m. Y', $raw);
+$start = DateTime::createFromFormat('d. m. Y', $raw);
 
 echo 'Start date: ' . $start->format('Y-m-d') . "\n";
 {% endhighlight %}
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ the `diff()` method. It will return new DateInterval, which is super easy to dis
 <?php
 // create a copy of $start and add one month and 6 days
 $end = clone $start;
-$end->add(new \DateInterval('P1M6D'));
+$end->add(new DateInterval('P1M6D'));
 
 $diff = $end->diff($start);
 echo 'Difference: ' . $diff->format('%m month, %d days (total: %a days)') . "\n";
@@ -48,8 +48,8 @@ DateTime objects, start and end, and the interval for which it will return all e
 {% highlight php %}
 <?php
 // output all thursdays between $start and $end
-$periodInterval = \DateInterval::createFromDateString('first thursday');
-$periodIterator = new \DatePeriod($start, $periodInterval, $end, \DatePeriod::EXCLUDE_START_DATE);
+$periodInterval = DateInterval::createFromDateString('first thursday');
+$periodIterator = new DatePeriod($start, $periodInterval, $end, DatePeriod::EXCLUDE_START_DATE);
 foreach ($periodIterator as $date) {
     // output each date in the period
     echo $date->format('Y-m-d') . ' ';
diff --git a/_posts/05-05-01-PHP-and-UTF8.md b/_posts/05-05-01-PHP-and-UTF8.md
index d3e2c95..7e6316c 100644
--- a/_posts/05-05-01-PHP-and-UTF8.md
+++ b/_posts/05-05-01-PHP-and-UTF8.md
@@ -84,13 +84,13 @@ $string = mb_substr($string, 0, 15);
 // Connect to a database to store the transformed string
 // See the PDO example in this document for more information
 // Note the `set names utf8mb4` commmand!
-$link = new \PDO(   
+$link = new PDO(
     'mysql:host=your-hostname;dbname=your-db;charset=utf8mb4',
     'your-username',
     'your-password',
     array(
-        \PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => \PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
-        \PDO::ATTR_PERSISTENT => false
+        PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
+        PDO::ATTR_PERSISTENT => false
     )
 );