diff -r f130ce67387d Lib/test/test_urllib2.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py	Tue Apr 10 14:50:39 2012 -0400
+++ b/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py	Sat Jul 07 16:02:38 2012 +0200
@@ -830,6 +830,31 @@
             p_ds_req = h.do_request_(ds_req)
             self.assertEqual(p_ds_req.unredirected_hdrs["Host"],"example.com")
 
+    def test_http_urlerror_raised_when_bad_status_line(self):
+        h = urllib2.AbstractHTTPHandler()
+        request = Request("http://www.python.org/")
+        request.timeout = socket._GLOBAL_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT
+
+        from httplib import BadStatusLine
+
+        class MockHTTPClassAlwaysBadStatusLine(object):
+            def __call__(self, host, timeout=socket._GLOBAL_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT):
+                self.host = host
+                self.timeout = timeout
+                return self
+
+            def set_debuglevel(self, level):
+                self.level = level
+
+            def request(self, method, url, body=None, headers={}):
+                pass
+
+            def getresponse(self):
+                raise BadStatusLine("HTTP/1.1 1024 MADEUP")
+
+        mockHttp = MockHTTPClassAlwaysBadStatusLine()
+        self.assertRaises(urllib2.URLError, h.do_open, mockHttp, request)
+
     def test_errors(self):
         h = urllib2.HTTPErrorProcessor()
         o = h.parent = MockOpener()
diff -r f130ce67387d Lib/urllib2.py
--- a/Lib/urllib2.py	Tue Apr 10 14:50:39 2012 -0400
+++ b/Lib/urllib2.py	Sat Jul 07 16:02:38 2012 +0200
@@ -1152,7 +1152,7 @@
         try:
             h.request(req.get_method(), req.get_selector(), req.data, headers)
             r = h.getresponse()
-        except socket.error, err: # XXX what error?
+        except (socket.error, httplib.BadStatusLine) as err:  # XXX what error?
             raise URLError(err)
 
         # Pick apart the HTTPResponse object to get the addinfourl