Interesting developments from the German Science Council's recent meeting in Berlin can be found at: http://de.news.yahoo.com/020712/3/2usir.html http://www2.abendblatt.de/daten/2002/07/13/46502.html If you don't read German, it's always fun to translate it at: http://babelfish.altavista.com/ Keep an eye on: http://www.wissenschaftsrat.de/ (and, of course, http://www.desy.de ) for any official statements. Norman Graf