Abnormal position of insertion point and paragraph symbol (4.1.0)

Using 4.1.0.4 on Mac OS X 10.8.4 (Mountain Lion)

In Writer:

Since advancing to 4.1, I have noticed the there is a space at the end of the words and the carriage return (paragraph) symbol.
When I place the insertion point at the end of the last word, it is flush with the carriage return symbol plus there is a significant gap between the last character of the last word and the insertion point.
When I attempt to Delete this space, I delete the last letter of the last word.

This is disconcerting.

It appears that LO 4.1.0.4 is not handling fonts very well.

I have not changed my default template for several years.
This happens with DejaVu Serif (my default font), but not with DejaVu Sans.
It also happens with Lucida Grande, Trebuchet MS, and Verdana.

The situation is even worse with Times New Roman and Arial.
In these cases the carriage return symbol is shifted to the left and overlies the text.
However the large space between the last character and the insertion point persists.

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Is this peculiar to me, or is any one else experiencing this problem?