Description:
------------
if I load a snippet of html with loadXML() and subsequently echo the contents, the first empty node is filled with the next node. This does not happen if the first node contains   or another empty node.
So the result will be:
<div>
    <nav id="filter" >
        <section id="portfolio_container">
        	<ul id="stage">
            </ul>
        </section>
    </nav>
</div>

php 5.4.19 that comes with xampp running on windows

Test script:
---------------
$html = '<div>
        <nav id="filter" />
        <section id="portfolio_container">
        	<ul id="stage">
            </ul>
        </section>
		</div>';
$doc = new DOMDocument('1.0','utf8');
$doc->loadXML($html);
echo"<pre>";
print_r($doc->saveXML());
echo"</pre>";
die();