input:

$ pandoc -f html -t markdown_phpextra-raw_html --no-wrap
<strong><br>b</strong>

actual output:

**
b**

But http://johnmacfarlane.net/babelmark2/?text=**%0Ab** tells me that this renders as ** b** for PHP Markdown Extra 1.2.8

Likewise:

$ pandoc -f html -t markdown_phpextra-raw_html --no-wrap
<strong>&nbsp;b</strong>

yields ** b** which renders as ** b**

Not 100% sure what the best output is. But certainly I shouldn't be seeing markdown markup. **b** would be tolerable, that being prefixed by a newline/space would be ideal.

pandoc 1.13.1
Compiled with texmath 0.8, highlighting-kate 0.5.9.