The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) Archives were delivered to the world scientific community on the 21st of March. ESA, in collaboration with the Spanish Laboratory of Space Astrophysics and Theoretical Physics (LAEFF) belonging to INTA (National Institute of Air and Space Technology), has developed and set up the INES system to access IUE Data.

INES (IUE Newly Extracted Spectra) is a complete astronomical archive and data-distribution system. Its release to the community represents the final activity by ESA in the context of the IUE project. From now LAEFF, on behalf of the international astronomical community, will be responsible of maintaining INES, making it available and providing world-wide support to scientists using IUE data.

The IUE Archive contains more than 110,000 spectra of more that 11,000 astronomical objects. All data are fully reduced and calibrated. The INES archive consists of:

• an access catalog containing the parameters required to query the archive and evaluate the observations,
• a publications catalog which links each spectrum to the publications in which it has been used via the ADS,
• the data themselves (low dispersion spectra, high dispersion spectra rebinned to the low resolution wavelength step, full high dispersion concatenated spectra, and bi-dimensional low dispersion images).

Questions about the INES archive can be directed to the INES Help Desk at ineshelp@iuearc.vilspa.esa.es or at http://iuearc.vilspa.esa.es/ines_jb/HelpDesk/.

The release data products can be accessed on-line from the IPAC/2MASS Web site at: http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/ or directly from the NASA/Infrared Science Archive site at http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/. In the near future, the release Catalogs will be available via ftp download, and on a limited distribution DVD-ROM. Access to the 2MASS Atlas Images is currently possible only via the on-line services.

The 2MASS/IPAC webpage contains general information about this data release, including an on-line Explanatory Supplement (http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/releases/second/doc/explsup.html), sky coverage maps, images of interesting objects in the release, catalog characteristics, etc. A tool for determining whether a specified position is included in the release area is available on the NASA/Infrared Science Archive webpage. Questions about the release can be directed to the 2MASS Help Desk at 2mass@ipac.caltech.edu.

We encourage you to notify us (at 2mass@ipac.caltech.edu) about any refereed publications or conference proceedings (even in preprint form) which make use of these or earlier 2MASS Release data products. We will gladly provide links to your papers from the 2MASS website. Thank you very much in advance.

The Two Micron All Sky Survey is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology. Funding for the survey has been provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.

The current list of teachers includes: Alexander, Tal (IAS Princeton); Eckart, Andreas (Cologne University); Falcke, Heino (MPIfR Bonn); Frolov, Valeri P. (University of Alberta, Edmonton) Hehl, Friedrich W. (Cologne University); H\"uttemeister, Susanne (University of Bonn); Kiefer, Claus (University of Freiburg i.Br.); Mashhoon, Bahram (University of Missouri-Columbia); Melia, Fulvio (University of Arizona, Tucson); Menten, Karl (MPIfR Bonn); Morris, Mark (UCLA); Neugebauer, Gernot (Jena University).

Every year, the German Physical Society (DPG) is organizing two courses during the summer holidays for advanced students on certain subjects of physics. During one week at the Physics Center, which can house about 70 people, about 10 to 15 lecturers teach the students the subject under consideration. The school is supported by the (non-profit) WE-Heraeus Foundation, Hanau. Students usually pay about Euro 150 for accomodation and meals, but some reductions are possible. The language of this school is English. Whereas basically the course is addressed to the members of the DPG, other students are welcome.