use strict;
my $str = 'NULL ({ / / }) Regina ({ 4 p1 p2 / / }) Shueller ({ 5 p1 p2 / / }) works ({ / / }) for ({ / / }) Italy ({ 14 / / }) \'s ({ 15 / / }) La ({ 16 / / }) Repubblica ({ 17 / / }) newspaper ({ 18 / / }) . ({ 38 / / })';
my $regex = qr/\({[^}]*}\)|NULL|\s+(?!\w)/p;
my $subst = '';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html