Clusters of galaxies are believed to constitute a population of astrophysical objects potentially able to emit electromagnetic radiation up to gamma-ray energies. Evidence of the existence of non-thermal radiation processes in galaxy clusters is indicated from observations of diffuse radio halos, hard X-ray and EUV excess emission. The presence of cosmic ray acceleration processes and its confinement on cosmological timescales nearly inevitably yields in predicting energetic gamma-ray emission, either directly deduceably from a cluster's multifreqency emission characteristics or indirectly during large-scale cosmological structure formation processes. This theoretical reasoning suggests several scenarios to actually detect galaxy clusters at gamma-ray wavelengths: Either resolved as individual sources of point-like or extended gamma-ray emission, by investigating spatial-statistical correlations with unidentified gamma-ray sources or, if unresolved, through their contribution to the extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray background. In the following I review the situation concerning the proposed relation between galaxy clusters and high-energy gamma-ray observations from an observational point-of-view.

We find evidence of a hard X-ray excess above the thermal emission in two cool clusters (Abell 1750 and IC 1262) and a soft excess in two hot clusters (Abell 754 and Abell 2163). Our modeling shows that the excess components in Abell 1750, IC 1262, and Abell 2163 are best fit by a steep power law indicative of a significant non-thermal component. In the case of Abell 754, the excess emission is thermal, 1 ke V emission. We analyze the dynamical state of each cluster and find evidence of an ongoing or recent merger in all four clusters. In the case of Abell 2163, the detected, steep spectrum, non-thermal X-ray emission is shown to be associated with the weak merger shock seen in the temperature map. However, this shock is not able to produce the flatter spectrum radio halo which we attribute to post-shock turbulence. In Abell 1750 and IC 1262, the shocked gas appears to be spatially correlated with non-thermal emission suggesting cosmic-ray acceleration at the shock front.

The first sentence in the second paragraph of INTRODUCTION, 'The first discovery of a galaxy beyond z=5 was reported by Weymann et al. (1998); HDF 4-470.3 at z=5.60.' should be read as 'The first discovery of a galaxy beyond z=5 was reported by Dey et al. (1998); 0140+326 RD1 at z=5.34'. The authors sincerely regret this error.

The 8m class telescopes in the ground-based optical astronomy together with help from the ultra-sharp eye of the Hubble Space Telescope have enabled us to observe forming galaxies beyond red shift z = 5. In particular, more than twenty Lyα-emitting galaxies have already been found at z > 5. These findings provide us with useful hints to investigate how galaxies formed and then evolved in the early universe. Further, detailed analysis of Lyα emission line profiles are useful in exploring the nature of the intergalactic medium because the trailing edge of cosmic reionization could be close to z ~ 6 -7, at which forming galaxies have been found recently. We also discuss the importance of superwinds from forming galaxies at high redshift, which has an intimate relationship between galaxies and the intergalactic medium. We then give a review of early cosmic star formation history based on recent progress in searching for Lyα-emitting young galaxies beyond red shift 5.

Proof correction to the equation in the third paragraph of the DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION has not been carried faithfully to the published version of the paper. The corrected equation should read ≈ 10 -3 M 8 4/3(N*/10 6 pc-3)(σ/300 km s-l)-l(r/rt) yr-1, where Ms is the mass of the SMBH in units of 10 8 M⊙, σ is the virial velocity of the stars, rt is the tidal radius of the SMBH. This estimates the frequency that a star would pass within a sphere with the radius r from the SMBH, rather than the frequency of the tidal disruption event. Therefore, it increases with the mass of the SMBH. However, the loss cone effect should also be taken into account, which reduces the actual event rate. Here, we adopted a factor of one hundred to consider the deficiency from the isotrophic rate. The authors sincerely regret this error.

CCD observations in V, I and Hα for NGC 3389 are used to present photometry of 61 HII regions. Their positions, diameters and absolute luminosities have been determined. The luminosity and size distribution functions of the HII regions in NGC 3389 are discussed.