Word limit plus generating bad html (also non xhtml compliant)

I am using word limit plus to show abstracts of stories with links to the full version. The generated page fails validation as xhtml.

The offending html extract (with strategic new lines) is:

This is a fairly boring news story with a massive filler appended.
This is a fairly boring news story with 

…<br><br>

<a href="http://localhost/~ed/EECore1.6.7/index.php/site/_News_story/a_dummy_news_story/">Read the full story ...</a>
</div>

Note there is no closing p tag, also for xhtml the two breaks should be written

To my taste the 2 breaks would be omitted so that the “more” text appeared at the end of the text rather than after a blank line with a closing p tag after the closing a tag.

Ed

[Mod Edit: Moved to the Plugins: Discussion and Questions forum]