$from = "news.dat.txt";
my %h;

open(FILE, "$from") || die "Can't open $from!\n";
while (<FILE>) {
   chomp;
   ($title,$url,$site,$date,$description) = split(/~/,$_);
   
   # if the date has already been seen, tack this entry on to the hash value
	if( $h{$date} ){ 
		$h{$date} .= "|$title~$url~$site~$description";
	}    
	
	# date hasn't been seen, so create a new hash entry
	else
	{
		$h{$date} = "$title~$url~$site~$description";
	}
}

#sort the dates in desc. order
foreach $key (sort {$b cmp $a} keys %h)
{
   #do for each item for that date
	@items = split '\|', $h{$key};
	foreach $item (@items)
	{
		#split back out the values and print the table
		my($title,$url,$site,$description) = split /~/,$item;
		print "<table width=400><tr>";
		print "<td><a href=\"$url\"><font color=blue>$title</font></a><br><font color=black>$key,$site<br>$description</font></td>";
		print "</tr></table><br>";
	}
}