The Federal Council of the Football Federation was convened for the 13 next Monday, August 18, at the headquarters of the Football Association, in Rome. The meeting will be chaired for the first time by the new federal president, Carlo Tavecchio. On the agenda: Election of Vice-Presidents; Communications from the President; nominations of competence; regulatory changes; order of the High Court of Justice n. 24 11/8/2014: action taken

FIONA MAY TO THE ROLE OF ADVISER - Even Fiona May will be part of the team that the new president of the FIGC, Carlo Tavecchio, is drawing in these hours. The former athlete blue, as already anticipated by ANSA on Monday after the election of the new number one in Via Allegri, has reiterated today Tavecchio its willingness to assume the role of advisor to the integration and policies against racial discrimination. But it is not only a testimonial: May the work personally to the projects against discrimination involving schools and children.

The severity of the woman’s injuries is not yet known and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is witholding further information until her family members have been consulted.

“The Australian Consulate-General in Geneva is providing consular assistance to an Australian woman in relation to a railway accident in Switzerland,” DFAT said in a statement just after midday today.

Swiss police have confirmed that five people were seriously injured while a further six sustained only slight injuries.

One carriage slid down a steep slope, saved from a ravine only by large trees.

The accident occurred in a deep wooded valley between Tiefencastel and Solis, southeast of Zurich in the canton (state) of Graubuenden.

Police said about 140 people were on board at the time of the accident, about lunchtime. The landslide followed heavy rains over the past 24 hours.

They injured included eight Swiss and two Japanese citizens as well as the Australian, police said.

The train had set off from the ski resort of St. Moritz heading north toward Chur, Graubuenden’s administrative capital.

Police initially said the train ran into a landslide on the track, but later revised their comments to say a landslide hit the train as it travelled between two tunnels along the side of a valley.

One train car slid about 10 metres down the slope before being stopped by the trees.

Air rescue helicopters helped with the recovery effort since the crash site was not near a road.

A YOUNG wheelchair user was left stranded on her way to college after she was unable to board both a train and a bus in Dublin.

Irish Rail has apologised after Aideen Horan (23), who is a student at UCD’s Blackrock campus, could not get on a train at Sydney Parade due to a lack of staff at the station to assist her.

The business student left the station and tried to get a bus instead, but was left sitting at the bus stop after a driver told her the wheelchair ramp wasn’t working.

Aideen, who has cerebral palsy, took to social media to express her anger.

She claimed that services have deteriorated in the last few years as money troubles cause staff shortages in Dart stations.

After her attempt to board a Dart was unsuccessful, she was left with no choice but to catch the bus.

Aideen told the Herald that when it pulled up at the stop  the driver told her “ramp’s broken” and closed the door.

“If a door on the bus was broken and people couldn’t get on, it wouldn’t leave the station but they’ll send one out with a broken ramp,” Aideen said. “I know we’re the minority but we still deserve to use the bus.”

Aideen had to return home and ask her roommate to accompany her on the train.

“I can’t rely on the goodwill of people and I shouldn’t have to,” she said, adding that last week’s incident was not a once-off.

The Ballinasloe native said she has also lived in Germany and Spain and travelled the West Coast of America and that Dublin’s rating as an accessible city doesn’t measure up.

“I love Dublin but for a capital city it’s not great for getting around,” she said.

Aideen lodged a complaint with Irish Rail when she had similar problems last year.

In their response, the company cited financial constraints as the reason for the lack of available staff to help.

Irish Rail also directed her to a disability assistance helpline to arrange someone to help her at the station, but she said that solution wasn’t an option for her when she is on her own.

The 20-year-old pop star's plea deal with prosecutors, detailed at a court hearing, includes a 12-hour anger management course, a $50,000charitable contribution and fines. The deal allows Bieber to avoid a driving under the influence conviction.

Singer Justin Bieber is photographed by police while in custody on January 23, 2014 in Miami Beach, Florida. Justin Bieber was arrested for driving under the influence, resisting arrest and driving without a valid driver's license

He was not present at the hearing before Miami-Dade County Judge William Altfield. Defence lawyer Mark Shapiro said Bieber had already given the money to a local children's charity.

The singer was arrested early on January 23 in Miami Beach after what police described as an illegal street race between his rented Lamborghini and a Ferrari driven by R&B singer Khalil Amir Sharieff.

Neither was charged with drag racing and there was little evidence they were even exceeding posted speed limits.

Alcohol breath tests found Bieber's level below the 0.02 limit for under-age drivers, but urine tests showed the presence of marijuana and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in his system.

Bieber was also charged with resisting arrest after a profanity-laced tirade against police officers, as well as driving on an expired license.

The urine test itself became a battle between media companies that sought access to video of it and Bieber's lawyers arguing it was an invasion of privacy.

Ultimately, Mr Altfield ordered the video released with sensitive portions blacked out. Other police video depicted Bieber walking unsteadily during a sobriety test.

In July, Bieber resolved another criminal case by pleading no contest to a vandalism charge for throwing eggs at a neighbour's house in Los Angeles. In that case, he agreed to pay more than $80,000 in damages and meet a number of other conditions.

Bieber is also charged in Toronto with assaulting a limousine driver in late December. His lawyers have said he is not guilty in that case.

Also in Miami, Bieber is being sued by a photographer who says he was roughed up while snapping pictures of the singer outside a recording studio.

The Canadian-born singer shot to stardom at age 15. His career was overseen by two music industry heavyweights, singer Usher and manager Scooter Braun, after initially gaining notice through YouTube videos.

Child protection services in Australia have made contact with a couple accused of abandoning a baby with Down’s syndrome with its surrogate mother in Thailand.

There was international outrage when it emerged the Australian couple returned from Thailand with a baby girl born to the surrogate mother, but left her twin brother, Gammy, who has Down's, behind.

Local media has since claimed court documents released by the Supreme Court of Australia show he was jailed in 1997 for a minimum of three years for sex offences involving three girls aged under 13.

Child protection officers had been attempting to reach the couple for the past few days. Western Australia Child Protection Minister Helen Morton told Fairfax Radio on Thursday: "We've had telephone contact with the family and we're in the process of putting other arrangements in place.

The surrogate mother Pattharamon Chanbua claims the couple asked her to have an abortion and left Gammy behind because of his disability. The couple denied this claim to Australian media, saying they did not know Gammy existed.

But Ms Chanbua, 21, says the father met the twins but only took his healthy twin sister.

New research finds that those who spot the logical flaws of their dream-world are likely to show greater insight when awake

You’re in a lecture hall giving the talk of your life, when you suddenly become aware of the fact that you aren’t wearing any trousers.

Dr Patrick Bourke, Senior Lecturer at the Lincoln School of Psychology, says: It is believed that for dreamers to become lucid while asleep, they must see past the overwhelming reality of their dream state, and recognise that they are dreaming.The same cognitive ability was found to be demonstrated while awake by a person’s ability to think in a different way when it comes to solving problems.

Not everyone experienced lucid dreamsIn order to investigate the connection between our sleeping and waking minds, the researchers examined 68 participants between the ages of eighteen and 25, ranging from frequent lucid dreamers to those who had never experienced the awareness of being in a dream state.

The bench then adjorned the matter asking the Centre to file affidavit within two weeks giving details about what it proposes to do for cleaning the river.

"In this matter you said there is urgency... Now there is no urgency for you. You are shuttling the issue between two ministries," the bench observed.

The bench also said that cleaning project should be done in stretches as it cannot be undertaken at one go. It suggested that initially the government should focus to clean first 100 km of the river and then it should take the task of cleaning another part of the river.

On the last date of hearing on August 5, the case was adjourned as the Centre sought more time to file response.

The issue of cleaning up of river Ganga has been monitored by the apex court and several applications have been filed.

The unchecked pollution of river Ganga has evoked sharp criticism by the apex court which has been hearing the case since 1985.

The 2,500 km stretch of the river passes through 29 major cities, 23 small cities and 48 towns.

Although Albert Einstein praised another as “the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began” after her death in the ’30s, she couldn’t get a teaching job. When she finally did, the Nazis took it away because she was Jewish.

The struggles of female mathematicians Hypatia (killed in the 5th century), Sophie Germain (1776–1831) and Emmy Noether (1882–1935) are now history. However, not until Tuesday did a woman win the Fields Medal — “the Nobel of math,” as Time magazine put it — first awarded in 1936.

The achievement of Stanford University professor Maryam Mirzakhani is not just unprecedented, but unlikely in a field where women remain underrepresented. As few as 9 percent of tenure-track positions in math are held by women, according to a 2010 study.

“This is a great honor. I will be happy if it encourages young female scientists and mathematicians,” Mirzakhani said in a Stanford University news release. “I am sure there will be many more women winning this kind of award in coming years.”

Mirzakhani was born in Iran, dreaming of becoming a writer. It was a tumultuous time in Iran, she said in an interview with the Clay Mathematics Institute. The country was still embroiled in war with Iraq and “those were hard times,” she said.

But she nonetheless remembers the first time she heard about mathematics. Her brother had a problem — and it would make her abandon her writing aspirations.

“My older brother was the person who got me interested in science in general,” she told the Clay Mathematics Institute. “He used to tell me what he learned in school. My first memory of mathematics is probably the time that he told me about the problem of adding numbers from 1 to 100. I think he had read in a popular science journal how [German mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich] Gauss solved this problem. The solution was quite fascinating for me. That was the first time I enjoyed a beautiful solution.”

There would be many more in her career. The war ended when she finished elementary school, and she and a friend spent time wandering in and out of bookstores in Tehran. “We couldn’t skim through the books like people usually do here in a bookstore,” she said. “So we would end up buying a lot of random books.”

Microsoft Devices on Wednesday announced the launch of "most affordable" Lumia 530 dual SIM smartphone for Rs. 7,349 in India.

Microsoft Devices said Lumia 530 will be available in stores at a best buy price of Rs. 7,349 starting August 14.

The new Lumia 530 will provide a powerful entry to Windows Phone 8.1 with a Quad Core processor delivering faster and smoother user experience, among others, it said in a press release.

This device will expand the reach of Windows Phone as it allows more people to enjoy Lumia innovations and Microsoft services similar to those offered in high-end Lumia smartphones, the release added.

"The affordable smartphone segment is growing exponentially, driven primarily by youth who are constantly looking out for smartphones with power-packed features at affordable prices," Viral Oza, Director-Marketing, Nokia India, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobiles Oy, said.

Samsung has launched its new Galaxy Alpha with a metal frame, in a bid to boost sales after the plastic design of its smartphones has been blamed for the company’s recent struggles.

The Wednesday launch of the latest Galaxy smartphone comes after a difficult second quarter for Samsung. While overall smartphones sales grew by almost 27 percent, Samsung’s shipments dropped. In May, the company also appointed a new head of its design team.

Samsung has pitched the Galaxy Alpha with its metal frame as a new start, and the design as something “entirely new” compared to the design of its existing products, which have been justifiably criticized for looking cheap irrespective of what they cost.

However, in reality the shape of the home button still makes it look very much like a Samsung smartphone, and the plastic back has inherited the dimpled design of the Galaxy S5. For some, the changes Samsung has made aren’t nearly big enough.

“Overall it’s a good phone but I was disappointed with the design, even with the metal frame it feels too plastic,” said Francisco Jeronimo, research director for European mobile devices at IDC.

Samsung has also decided to make the Galaxy Alpha thin and light: it weighs just 115 grams and is 6.7 millimeters thick.

Under the hood, the smartphone is based on Android 4.4.4 and powered by an Exynos processor with four ARM Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.8GHz and four Cortex-A7 cores running at 1.3GHz. The screen measures 4.7 inches and has a 1280 by 720 pixel resolution.

The smartphone also has a 12-megapixel camera on the back and a 2.1-megapixel front camera. It has 2GB of RAM and 32GB of integrated storage, but no microSD card slot. The LTE connection supports download speeds up to 300Mbps, as long as there is a network that can handle it as well.