AP. Italy is planning a bid to host the 2016 European Championships, after a surprise loss to Poland and Ukraine for the 2012 tournament. Italian Football Federation president Giancarlo Abete said Italy would present an official declaration of interest by next week, according to UEFA's rules. (Read the article)

BBC. About a third of Italian MPs are refusing to take part in a new electronic fingerprint voting system. They are now being offered coffee breaks to try to persuade them to use the system, which is due to be introduced next week. (Read the article by Duncan Kennedy)

ANSA. Italian scientists say they may have discovered a 'natural Viagra' in a pungent gas emitted by hot springs. Hydrogen sulphide (H2S), sometimes called stink damp or rotten-egg gas, is found at many hot spas in Italy and elsewhere. (Read the article)

ANSA. The Colosseum was lit up Monday night to celebrate a senate vote in the American state of Montana to abolish the death penalty, the Catholic Sant'Egidio community said. (Read the article)

CHICAGO TRIBUNE. One of the hottest video hits on YouTube features a saucy, dark-haired Italian who knows her way around a kitchen. Is it a sign of the times that it's neither Rachael Ray nor Giada De Laurentiis, but rather a 93-year-old great-grandmother named Clara Cannucciari who cooks in a kitchen that looks like it was last redecorated when Richard Nixon was president (Read the article by Renee Enna)

AFP. As an alleged mafia hitman, Charles Carneglia excelled at making people vanish. Now he and the rest of New York's once mighty Cosa Nostra could be the ones disappearing. Carneglia, 62, is on trial for five murders and other crimes, including kidnapping, allegedly committed as a soldier for the Gambinos -- one of the five historic mafia families based in the New York area. Another of these so-called "rats," a thuggish former mobster called John Alite, is likely to star in the upcoming murder trial of John "Junior" Gotti, son and namesake of the Gambino's infamous "Dapper Don," who died in prison in 2002. For the other families -- the Bonanno, Colombo, Genovese and Luchese -- the story is the same or worse.

ASSOCIATED PRESS. Despite tough economic times, Italian designers are putting on a good show this week as they present womenswear for fall-winter 2009-2010. "I can't believe how upbeat they are here," said American fashion writer Mary Lou Luther, creative director of The Fashion Group International. Luther noted that recession concerns were so much on people's minds during the recent New York shows that they were mentioned in show notes, usually reserved for collection descriptions. (Read the Article by Daniela Petroff)

ANSA. Italy will contribute 100 million dollars to help Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Premier Silvio Berlusconi told an international donors' conference here Monday. Berlusconi also reiterated Italy's idea for a 'Marshall Plan' for the Palestinian economy, saying it would be one of the priorities of Italy's term at the helm of the Group of Eight this year.