I immediately thought HTML::Template or jQuery.

Here's an HTML::Template approach:

<table class="newsitems">
   <tr>
      <th>Title</th>            
      <th>Author</th>
   </tr>
   <tmpl_if list>
      <tmpl_loop list>
         <tmpl_if name="__odd__">
            <tr style="background-color: #fff">
         <tmpl_else>
            <tr style="background-color: #eee">
         </tmpl_if>
            <td><tmpl_var title></td>
            <td><tmpl_var author></td>
      </tmpl_loop>
   <tmpl_else>
      <tr>
         <td>No News Items recorded</td>
      </tr>
   </tmpl_if>
</table>
[download]

Another nice touch is to highlight rows as the mouse hovers over them:

CSS: 
.follow_mouse tr:hover td { background: #A4D9F7; } /* light blue */

HTML:
<table class="follow_mouse">
[download]