As mentioned on the poi-user list. If you use the following code with the attached document, neither 
delete does the correct thing. On the paragraph delete, nothing is deleted, but the bold character 
properties are lost for the third paragraph. With the range delete, paragraphs 3 and 4 are deleted, 
and the bold then applies to the middle of the 2nd paragraph

        Range r = doc.getRange();
        int numParagraphs = r.numParagraphs();
        int p_s = 0;
        int p_e = 0;
        boolean useParaDel = false;
        for(int i=0; i < numParagraphs; i++) {
            Paragraph p = r.getParagraph(i);
            String text = p.text();
            if(text.trim().length() == 0) { continue; }
            System.out.println(i + "\t" + p.text() + "\n\n");

            if(text.indexOf("{delete me}") > -1) {
                System.out.println("Found, deleting");
                if(useParaDel) { p.delete(); }
                p_s = p._start;
                p_e = p._end;
            }
        }
        Range rt = new Range(p_s,p_e,r);
        if(! useParaDel ) { rt.delete(); }