For #1: I think you want the trailing s modifier on any pattern you use, since the text you're matching against contains newlines that you want to treat as normal whitespace characters. Perhaps something like this would work:
m/\n([^\n]*)\nPANE/s

For #2: It sounds like your regex for identifying a URL might make some erroneous assumptions. Perhaps if you posted the specific code someone could offer more detailed assistance.

        $perlmonks{seattlejohn} = 'John Clyman';