diff --git a/dist/showdown.js b/dist/showdown.js
index a4d7038..7f8124a 100644
Binary files a/dist/showdown.js and b/dist/showdown.js differ
diff --git a/dist/showdown.js.map b/dist/showdown.js.map
index 1950d65..8b613d1 100644
Binary files a/dist/showdown.js.map and b/dist/showdown.js.map differ
diff --git a/dist/showdown.min.js b/dist/showdown.min.js
index e427f36..ca2ddf2 100644
Binary files a/dist/showdown.min.js and b/dist/showdown.min.js differ
diff --git a/dist/showdown.min.js.map b/dist/showdown.min.js.map
index b2bb56b..beb51c1 100644
Binary files a/dist/showdown.min.js.map and b/dist/showdown.min.js.map differ
diff --git a/src/subParsers/paragraphs.js b/src/subParsers/paragraphs.js
index 6054a5f..54e7240 100644
--- a/src/subParsers/paragraphs.js
+++ b/src/subParsers/paragraphs.js
@@ -18,7 +18,10 @@ showdown.subParser('paragraphs', function (text, options, globals) {
     // if this is an HTML marker, copy it
     if (str.search(/¨(K|G)(\d+)\1/g) >= 0) {
       grafsOut.push(str);
-    } else {
+
+    // test for presence of characters to prevent empty lines being parsed
+    // as paragraphs (resulting in undesired extra empty paragraphs)
+    } else if (str.search(/\S/) >= 0) {
       str = showdown.subParser('spanGamut')(str, options, globals);
       str = str.replace(/^([ \t]*)/g, '<p>');
       str += '</p>';
diff --git a/test/cases/strip-references.html b/test/cases/strip-references.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/test/cases/strip-references.md b/test/cases/strip-references.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fec643
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/cases/strip-references.md
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+[1]: http://www.google.co.uk
+
+[http://www.google.co.uk]: http://www.google.co.uk
+
+
+
+
+
+[1]: http://dsurl.stuff/something.jpg
+
+[1]:http://www.google.co.uk
+
+ [1]:http://www.google.co.uk