> I am not sure how to deal with <br/> elements.


>   <xsl:for-each select="following-sibling::text()[ generate-id(
> following-sibling::a[1] ) = $next_a ]">
>       <xsl:value-of select="."/>
>   </xsl:for-each>

value-of gives the string value of its argument, which is "" for <br/>
also you are only selecting text but you want to select all nodes
you want copy-of here, so

   <xsl:for-each select="following-sibling::node()[ generate-id(
 following-sibling::a[1] ) = $next_a ]">
       <xsl:copy-of select="."/>
   </xsl:for-each>

or more simply

<xsl:copy-of select="following-sibling::node()[ generate-id(
 following-sibling::a[1] ) = $next_a ]"/>

David

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