Try this, it works,
print "Hello World \n";
my $tmp = `python -V 2>&1`;
print "Version: $tmp \n";
Note that you cannot simply open STDERR to be a dup of STDOUT in your Perl program and avoid calling the shell to do the redirection. This doesn't work:
open(STDERR, ">&STDOUT");
$alloutput = `cmd args`; # stderr still escapes
This fails because the open() makes STDERR go to where STDOUT was going at the time of the open(). The backticks then make STDOUT go to a string, but don't change STDERR (which still goes to the old STDOUT).
All is well. I learn by answering your questions...