Here is something a bit more modern. See XML::Feed, DateTime, MIME::Lite, and friends.

use strict;
use warnings;
use XML::Feed;
use MIME::Lite;
use DateTime;
use URI;

my $uri = URI->new("http://news.google.com/news?q=perl&output=atom");

# parse can take raw xml, file names, and more
my $feed = XML::Feed->parse($uri)
    or die XML::Feed->errstr;

my $last_48 = DateTime
    ->now( time_zone => 'floating' )
    ->subtract( hours => 48 );

exit unless 1 == DateTime->compare( $feed->modified, $last_48 );

my $body = "";
for my $entry ( $feed->entries )
{
    next unless 1 == DateTime->compare( $entry->modified, $last_48 );
    $body .= "<h3>" . $entry->title . "</h3>\n";
    $body .= "<div>" . $entry->content->body . "</div>\n";
}

warn "No body... loves me!" unless $body;

my $msg = MIME::Lite
    ->new(
          From     => 'me@myhost.com',
          To       => 'you@yourhost.com',
          Subject  => $feed->title,
          Type     => "text/html",
          Data     => $body,
         );

print $msg->as_string, "\n";
# $msg->send;
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