#!/usr/bin/perl
while(<DATA>){
  if (/^(\[\w+\])/) {
    $f = $1;
  }
  elsif ($f =~ m/\[NEW\]/) {
#        $_ =~ s/\[NEW\](.*){\w*}/<p>$1<\/p>/g;
      $_=~ s/<$/<\/p><p>/g;
 s/(\[NEW\].+?)\<?(\n\[)/$1<p>$2/xsg;
        print $_;
}

}
__DATA__
[NEW]
 Dear Carolyn: My husband and I divorced after 42 years. It didn't tak
+e long
for him to find a replacement, but I was happy for him at the time.<
them and let my grandchildren dig through her purse as if she were the
+ir
grandmother.<
[OLD]
[download]

The above code does not work