diff --git a/base.php b/base.php
index 43e4fda..62f94c5 100644
--- a/base.php
+++ b/base.php
@@ -340,77 +340,12 @@ function useNormAndUp () {
 
 function normalizeUtf8String( $s)
 {
-    $original_string = $s;
-
-    // maps German (umlauts) and other European characters onto two characters before just removing diacritics
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00c4}@u'    , "AE",    $s );    // umlaut Ä => AE
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00d6}@u'    , "OE",    $s );    // umlaut Ö => OE
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00dc}@u'    , "UE",    $s );    // umlaut Ü => UE
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00e4}@u'    , "ae",    $s );    // umlaut ä => ae
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00f6}@u'    , "oe",    $s );    // umlaut ö => oe
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00fc}@u'    , "ue",    $s );    // umlaut ü => ue
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00f1}@u'    , "ny",    $s );    // ñ => ny
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00ff}@u'    , "yu",    $s );    // ÿ => yu
-
-
-    // maps special characters (characters with diacritics) on their base-character followed by the diacritical mark
-        // exmaple:  Ú => U´,  á => a`
-    $s    = Normalizer::normalize( $s, Normalizer::FORM_D );
-
-
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\pM@u'        , "",    $s );    // removes diacritics
-
-
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00df}@u'    , "ss",    $s );    // maps German ß onto ss
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00c6}@u'    , "AE",    $s );    // Æ => AE
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00e6}@u'    , "ae",    $s );    // æ => ae
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0132}@u'    , "IJ",    $s );    // ? => IJ
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0133}@u'    , "ij",    $s );    // ? => ij
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0152}@u'    , "OE",    $s );    // Π=> OE
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0153}@u'    , "oe",    $s );    // œ => oe
-
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00d0}@u'    , "D",    $s );    // Ð => D
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0110}@u'    , "D",    $s );    // Ð => D
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00f0}@u'    , "d",    $s );    // ð => d
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0111}@u'    , "d",    $s );    // d => d
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0126}@u'    , "H",    $s );    // H => H
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0127}@u'    , "h",    $s );    // h => h
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0131}@u'    , "i",    $s );    // i => i
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0138}@u'    , "k",    $s );    // ? => k
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{013f}@u'    , "L",    $s );    // ? => L
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0141}@u'    , "L",    $s );    // L => L
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0140}@u'    , "l",    $s );    // ? => l
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0142}@u'    , "l",    $s );    // l => l
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{014a}@u'    , "N",    $s );    // ? => N
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0149}@u'    , "n",    $s );    // ? => n
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{014b}@u'    , "n",    $s );    // ? => n
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00d8}@u'    , "O",    $s );    // Ø => O
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00f8}@u'    , "o",    $s );    // ø => o
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{017f}@u'    , "s",    $s );    // ? => s
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00de}@u'    , "T",    $s );    // Þ => T
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0166}@u'    , "T",    $s );    // T => T
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{00fe}@u'    , "t",    $s );    // þ => t
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@\x{0167}@u'    , "t",    $s );    // t => t
-
-    // remove all non-ASCii characters
-    $s    = preg_replace( '@[^\0-\x80]@u'    , "",    $s );
-
-
-    // possible errors in UTF8-regular-expressions
-    if (empty($s))
-        return $original_string;
-    else
-        return $s;
-}
-
-function transliterate ($a) {
     include_once 'transliteration.php';
-    return _transliteration_process($a);
+    return _transliteration_process($s);
 }
 
-function normAndUp ($a) {
-    //return mb_strtoupper (normalizeUtf8String($a), 'UTF-8');
-    return mb_strtoupper (transliterate($a), 'UTF-8');
+function normAndUp ($s) {    
+    return mb_strtoupper (normalizeUtf8String($s), 'UTF-8');
 }
 
 class Link