title: Python shortest regex match does not seem to yield correct answer,
body: <p>For text </p>
  
  <pre><code>In &lt;TIMEX3 tid="t4" type="DATE" value="2013-03-21"&gt;the 90 years&lt;/TIMEX3&gt; since Rebecca Felton of Georgia became the first woman in the United States Senate - sworn in for a mere &lt;TIMEX3 tid="t5" type="DATE" value="2013-03-21"&gt;24 hours&lt;/TIMEX3&gt; - women remain an anomaly in the upper chamber.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The regex</p>
  
  <pre><code>re.sub(r"&lt;TIMEX3 .*?&gt;24 hours&lt;/TIMEX3&gt;", "24 hours", text)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Should yield </p>
  
  <pre><code>In &lt;TIMEX3 tid="t4" type="DATE" value="2013-03-21"&gt;the 90 years&lt;/TIMEX3&gt; since Rebecca Felton of Georgia became the first woman in the United States Senate - sworn in for a mere 24 hours - women remain an anomaly in the upper chamber.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Since I am matching the shortest possible match (.*?)
  However, it generates</p>
  
  <pre><code>In 24 hours - women remain an anomaly in the upper chamber.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Would be grateful for any guidance on what I'm doing wrong.</p>