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Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi’s campaign to become European Central Bank head picked up speed with an endorsement by a top-selling German tabloid that has close ties to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government.

Bild-Zeitung published a photomontage of Draghi wearing a Prussian spiked helmet today, saying the race for the ECB presidency “is decided,” and Draghi is German-enough for Merkel to support him.

Backing by Germany’s most-read newspaper, which last year lampooned the idea of an Italian managing Europe’s money and channeled public outrage over aiding debt-laden Greece, will help prepare grass-roots opinion for a southern European atop the 17-nation central bank, said Hans-Juergen Hoffmann, head of the Psephos polling company.

“I think the risk for Merkel of supporting Draghi is limited and can be managed if the public relations work for the decision is done efficiently,” Hoffmann said in a telephone interview. “It’s absolutely conceivable” that the Bild report is part of that management.

Merkel wants to support the “most German among the remaining candidates” to succeed ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, Bild said, citing Chancellery officials it didn’t name. Bild praised Draghi as “rather German, even a true Prussian.”

‘No New Development’

Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said today there’s “no new development,” responding to a question about the Bild report. The government will announce whom it supports “in a timely fashion” before a European Union summit meeting in June, he told reporters in Berlin.

Draghi has the support of Italy, France and Spain, making Merkel alone among the leaders of the euro area’s four biggest countries in not coming out for him. Leaders from smaller countries including Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs meetings of euro area finance ministers, have also indicated their support.

Trichet’s eight-year term ends in October, creating an opening at the top of the world’s second most powerful central bank after the U.S. Federal Reserve.

In all, six countries have publicly endorsed Draghi and none have opposed him. He became the frontrunner when Germany’s contender, Axel Weber, pulled out in February and quit as head of the German Bundesbank to return to academic life pay day loans.

Draghi is the only declared candidate so far. National central bankers including Yves Mersch of Luxembourg and Erkki Liikanen of Finland have been mooted as possible compromise choices by the media.

Germany’s Role

While Germany alone cannot dictate who wins the post, its status as Europe’s largest economy and biggest guarantor of aid packages to Greece, Ireland and soon Portugal makes it the dominant voice in the appointment.

Bailout politics restrict Germany’s room for maneuver, with resentment at propping up deficit-prone governments translating into regional electoral defeats for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its allies.

“Of course there are fears, often the result of national prejudices, that a southern European may conduct a euro policy that doesn’t have stability as the main criterion,” said Hoffmann. “The public at large doesn’t have a firm opinion yet, so the government has to do some advertising now.”

Draghi, 63, who was born in Rome, is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained economist with stints at the World Bank and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) on his resume.

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Cardboard box maker Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. reported a $54 million profit for the first quarter that ended March 31, or 54 cents a share, compared to a net loss of $91 million, or 35 cents a share, a year ago.

Smurfit-Stone has dual headquarters in Creve Coeur and Chicago.

Net sales for the first quarter, $1.58 billion, increased 8 percent compared with $1.46 billion in the first quarter a year ago.

Norcross, Ga.-based Rock-Tenn announced its plans in January to buy Smurfit-Stone for $3.5 billion. The sale is set to close in the second calendar quarter of 2011.

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Conference call, anyone?

Several times a year, the lords of the global economy descend on the city of the moment. Their massive entourages fly business class, zoom around in motorcades and sleep at 5-star hotels. What do taxpayers funding all this summitry get in return? Ambiguous communiqués, hollow pledges and a nagging sense that world leaders should discover videoconferencing.

The latest summit of emerging-market stars is a case in point. As if the alphabet soup of G-7, G-8, G-20, APEC and OPEC weren’t enough, we now must follow BRICS events. In 2009 and 2010, they were just BRIC affairs: Brazil, Russia, India and China. This year, an “S” was awkwardly added for South Africa. Even Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who 10 years ago coined the acronym BRIC, doesn’t get why it’s there.

Far more deserving additions exist in Asia — South Korea and Indonesia. Yet the more I see what the BRICS are becoming, the more I think Seoul and Jakarta should decline any invite. BRICS confabs reinforce how artificial the whole enterprise is.

Take the bluster about a new world order. No one in their right mind would argue we don’t need one, yet the Group of 20 nations is a far more productive framework for any redesign of global markets and institutions. And each of the BRICS has a seat at the G-20 table.

Staging Sideshows

The trick is for emerging economies to demand a bigger voice there — not stage sideshows. That’s not to say economic groupings are pointless. In Asia, for example, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations is the only forum where the world can engage Myanmar’s repressive regime. Still, Asean is more about photo opportunities than substance.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group is a circus. The only real thing its 21 members have in common is beachfront property. An APEC-wide free-trade zone would be a wonderful thing. On its watch, bilateral agreements, not sweeping international ones, became the norm. APEC gatherings are now Davos-like affairs. Like the World Economic Forum, they’re an excuse for corporate bigwigs to jet in and do deals. Rather than meeting in Hawaii in November, APEC leaders should call it in and reduce their carbon footprint.

Important topics were broached at the April 14 BRICS summit at the Chinese city of Sanya, including regulating derivatives and volatility in commodity prices. What it really highlighted is what really matters: the “C” in BRICS.

The group hasn’t moved beyond being about China’s voracious appetite for the commodities of the other four members, with a bit of America-bashing tossed in.

China’s Money

Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa are key economies in their own right, yet BRICS gatherings have evolved into the geopolitical equivalent of investment roadshows. China has piles of money, and the real action is on the sidelines of formal discussions. There, officials angle for more Chinese investment and access to the nation’s 1.3 billion consumers.

This dynamic offers some useful reality checks. For India, it’s realizing a trade deficit with China exceeding $20 billion annually will grow no matter how close Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sits to Chinese President Hu Jintao at the BRICS table. For Russia, it’s a one-time superpower being part of an emerging-nation group it doesn’t even lead. For Brazil, it’s how Latin America’s biggest economy weakened its trade defenses for a Chinese government unwilling to do the same. For South Africa, it’s that more will be expected of it on the progress front.

BRICS Brotherhood

As much as these economies must harness China’s 9.7 percent growth, they also need to protect domestic economies. Their currencies are rising while China works 24/7 to maintain an undervalued yuan. The trouble is, membership in the BRICS brotherhood makes it hard politically for officials in Brasilia, Moscow, New Delhi or Pretoria to criticize Beijing.

That’s why anger is being projected elsewhere. The U.S. deserves some for its hypocritical policies since the 2008 crisis. Back in 1997, when Asia blew up, America told the region to raise interest rates to support currencies, reduce debt, avoid blaming speculators for market swings and follow free- market policies. Today, the U.S. is doing exactly the opposite.

Yet big changes like replacing the dollar are better handled by the broader G-20. With over $4 trillion of combined currency reserves, any BRICS move to dump the dollar will shake markets. If you think the real, ruble, rupee, yuan or rand will replace the dollar anytime soon you’re dreaming. Even if the yuan emerged as a viable reserve currency, it first must be fully convertible. That’s a ways off.

Eclipsing U.S.

BRICS don’t want to live in a world run by Washington –not when their combined gross domestic product could eclipse the U.S. by the end of 2014. And it’s ridiculous that the governance of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank still rotates between the U.S. and Europe to the exclusion of the rest of the world.

The future clearly belongs to emerging nations. It’s just not clear that the BRICS as a political entity is evolving into something that can play a credible role in creating it.

(William Pesek is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

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Heavy fighting raged anew in Misrata and killed 24 people Saturday as Moammar Gadhafi’s forces gave up more ground inside Libya’s third-largest city. The U.S. said its first Predator drone attack in the country destroyed a government rocket launcher that had menaced civilians in the western city.

Hundreds of people have been killed in rebel-held Misrata in a two-month government siege backed by tanks, mortars and snipers. On Friday night, the regime said it was withdrawing its military forces and allowing armed tribesmen to take over the battle. But the opposition was skeptical about the claim, saying it doubted Gadhafi’s troops would fully depart.

“Gadhafi forces are moving back,” said Safi Eddin al-Montaser, a rebel spokesman in Misrata. But he added: “People are still nervous because we don’t know the next step of Gadhafi’s forces.”

Jalal el-Gallal, a spokesman for the rebels’ leadership council in their stronghold of Benghazi, said he doubted the regime will fully withdraw from Misrata. He claimed the rebels firmly control the city.

Misrata, the only major rebel stronghold in western Libya, has become the most dramatic battleground in the Libyan uprising, which began in February after similar revolts in Tunisia and Egypt ousted longtime leaders. Fighting elsewhere in the country is at a stalemate, even with NATO airstrikes that began last month.

Residents reported heavy fighting, shelling and explosions in the east and south of Misrata and doctors said the day was one of the bloodiest in weeks. At least 24 people were killed and 75 were wounded, many of them critically, said a doctor at a Misrata hospital who asked to be identified only by his first name because he was afraid of government retribution.

He said that hospital officials who feared a strong attack Saturday had moved out some patients a day earlier to make way for more casualties.

Pro-Gadhafi troops in central Misrata _ including snipers who had terrorized residents for days atop an eight-story building _ were either flushed out or withdrew in the last two days in what the rebels considered a victory. That enabled some people to venture out into the battle-scarred streets and allowed fighters to set up new checkpoints at the entrance to the city and along some blocks.

“The people began breathing freely,” one resident said during the day, although he added that rebels were still wary of pro-Gadhafi brigades who may have melted into the population.

There was no sign of celebrations in the streets. Traffic had returned and there were long lines for bread and gasoline, signs of the distress that the prolonged siege has caused in the city.

“People are very happy,” al-Montaser added. “It feels like a victory, but they will feel happier when all of Misrata and Libya is free.”

In some vacated buildings, rebels found that the Gadhafi forces had left behind booby-trapped bodies that were wired to explode if they were moved, al-Montaser said.

On Friday night, Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said government troops would pull back from the city, saying armed tribesmen would take up the fight if rebel forces don’t surrender.

“We will leave it for the tribes around Misrata and the Misrata people to deal with the situation in Misrata,” Kaim told reporters.

However, Misrata is not known to have very large or dominant tribes, and rebels in Misrata questioned how much support Gadhafi had among them.

NATO said a U.S. Predator drone destroyed a multiple rocket launcher Saturday in the Misrata area that was being used against civilians. The Pentagon said it was the first attack carried out in Libya by one of the drones, which began flying missions in the country on Thursday.

In eastern Libya, which is largely controlled by the rebels, other NATO strikes smashed more than two dozen sedans and pickup trucks belonging to government forces about halfway between Ajdabiya and the strategic oil town of Brega, said rebel battalion commander Col. Hamid Hassy.

President Barack Obama approved the use of armed Predator drones to improve the precision of strikes on Libyan government forces. Predators had previously been used in Libya only for surveillance. The low-flying Predators have been used in Pakistan to kill militants and are suited for urban combat.

The front in the east has been stalled between Brega and Ajdabiya for weeks. NATO stepped into the Libyan fighting in mid-March, unleashing airstrikes against Libyan military targets as part of a U.N. mandate to protect civilians.

In the capital of Tripoli, the government took reporters on a tour of a site near Gadhafi’s sprawling compound that apparently was struck by two NATO missiles early Saturday. They said the attack caused no injuries.

Reporters were shown two craters next the Bab al-Aziziya compound laying bare what looked like a bunker system. Libyan officials said the space was a parking lot but a series of olive-colored metal boxes near the crater suggested it was being used for military activities.

Anti-aircraft fire also was heard Saturday night in central Tripoli.

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Holland Construction Services Inc. has completed a new addition to the Four Paws Animal Hospital, 2006 West Highway 50 in O’Fallon, Ill., now providing more space for existing and added services it offers its clients.

The addition consists of about 6,000 square feet that Four Paws plans to use for expanded dental and surgical services and larger lodging area.

A dedicated chemotherapy area is available to treat cancer patients, and a rehabilitation area with underwater treadmill helps orthopedic patients. A special room was added for end-of-life services.

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Foreign direct investment surged 33 percent in March from a year earlier as rising inflation and interest rates failed to damp overseas confidence in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

Foreign investments added $12.5 billion to China’s economy, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement in Beijing today. Investments increased at an annual rate of 29 percent in the first quarter.

China’s central bank said April 17 it would ratchet up lenders’ reserve requirements for the fourth time this year, aiming to prevent excess cash from fueling inflation that accelerated to the fastest pace in almost three years in March. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) said last month it may buy more land to build shops in the world’s most populous nation, which it predicts will be the largest grocery market by 2014.

Starbucks Corp. (SBUX), the world’s largest coffee-shop operator, said it aims to increase their presence in China by boosting the number of outlets in China to 1,500 by 2015.

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A pair of thin robots on treads sent to explore buildings inside Japan’s crippled nuclear reactor came back Monday with disheartening news: Radiation levels are far too high for repair crews to go inside.

Nevertheless, officials remained hopeful they can stick to their freshly minted “roadmap” for cleaning up the radiation leak and stabilizing the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant by year’s end so they can begin returning tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes.

“Even I had expected high radioactivity in those areas. I’m sure (plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.) and other experts have factored in those figures when they compiled the roadmap,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Officials said Monday that radiation had spiked in a water tank in Unit 2 and contaminated water was discovered in other areas of the plant, underscoring the growing list of challenges facing TEPCO in cleaning up and containing the radiation. They also described in more detail the damage to fuel in three troubled reactors, saying pellets had melted.

Angry at the slow response to the nuclear crisis and to the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that caused it, lawmakers tore into Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

“You should be bowing your head in apology. You clearly have no leadership at all,” Masashi Waki, a lawmaker from the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, shouted at Kan.

“I am sincerely apologizing for what has happened,” Kan said, stressing the government was doing all it could to handle the unprecedented disasters.

TEPCO’s president, Masataka Shimizu, appeared ill at ease as lawmakers heckled and taunted him.

Workers have not been able to enter the reactor buildings at the stricken plant since the first days after the cooling systems were wrecked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 27,000 people dead or missing. Hydrogen explosions in both buildings in the first few days destroyed their roofs and scattered radioactive debris.

On Sunday, a plant worker opened an outer door to one of the buildings and two Packbots, which resemble drafting lamps on tank-like treads, entered. After the worker closed the door, one robot opened an inner door and both rolled inside to take readings for temperature, pressure and radioactivity. They later entered a second building.

The robots reported radioactivity readings of up to 49 millisieverts per hour inside Unit 1 and up to 57 inside Unit 3, levels too high for workers to realistically enter.

“It’s a harsh environment for humans to work inside,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Japanese authorities more than doubled the legal limit for nuclear workers since the crisis began to 250 millisieverts a year. Workers in the U.S. nuclear industry are allowed an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. Doctors say radiation sickness sets in at 1,000 millisieverts and includes nausea and vomiting cash till payday advance.

The robots, made by Bedford, Massachusetts, company iRobot, which also makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner, explored Unit 2 on Monday, but TEPCO officials had yet to analyze that data.

The radioactivity must be reduced, possibly with the removal of contaminated debris and stagnant water, before repair crews would be allowed inside, said NISA official Masataka Yoshizawa.

Sturdier robots can remove some of the debris, but workers are needed to test the integrity of the equipment and carry out electrical repairs needed to restore the cooling systems as called for in the road map, Yoshizawa said.

“What robots can do is limited, so eventually, people must enter the buildings,” TEPCO official Takeshi Makigami said.

The robots, along with remote-controlled miniature drones, have enabled TEPCO to photograph and take measurements of conditions in and around the plant while minimizing workers’ exposure to radiation and other hazards.

Separately, readings from a water tank attached to the spent fuel pool in Unit 2 showed a severe spike in radiation that NISA officials said might have been caused by the escape of radioactive vapor from a nearby containment vessel. They said, however, the possibility of damage to spent fuel rods could not be ruled out.

NISA also sent a report to the government watchdog Nuclear Safety Commission, saying that some fuel pellets and rods in the reactors in Units 1, 2 and 3 had become overheated and melted, the first time it had provided details of the damage to the fuel. Nishiyama, said the agency can only say “more than 3 percent” of the fuel rods have melted.

A pool of stagnant radioactive water was also discovered in the basement of Unit 4.

With evacuees’ ordeal stretching into the long-term, some began moving out of school gymnasiums into temporary housing. Hundreds who have not found apartments or relatives to take them in began filling up inns at hot springs.

“The government has asked us to be ready to take in as many as 200 evacuees for the next four months at least,” said Masaki Hata, whose family has run the Yoshikawaya Hot Springs Inn on the outskirts of Fukushima for seven generations.

Michiaki Niitsuma, a 27-year-old office worker, said he was glad to have a comfortable place to stay while he waited to go home.

“My kids got sick in the shelter. It was cold. It’s much better here. It’s a relief,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Eric Talmadge in Fukushima and Noriko Kitano in Tokyo contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS in paragraphs 4 and 19 that officials believe rise in radiation is from release of vapor.)

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Robert Cartwright drives a company car. He has a laptop, iPhone and video camera paid for by this employer, and rarely spends time in the Bridgeton headquarters of Vantage Credit Union.

Instead, Cartwright is often online where he chats with

With his highly technical mind, Ken Schafermeyer is among the local health care experts who seem to grasp the fluid dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry, from patented research to mail order.

Steeped in the world of prescription medicines, he seems to revel in discussing the latest permutations of rebates, discounts, community pharmacies and pharmacy benefits managers. He also has a yen for public policy, eager to size up the strengths and inequities of U.S. health care.

Schafermeyer is a professor of pharmacy administration at St. Louis College of Pharmacy, where he has worked since 1990. He’s also director of the college’s Division of Liberal Arts and Administrative Sciences. He worked previously as a state pharmacy association executive and lobbyist, and also as a consultant for several managed care and Medicaid agencies in Missouri and Indiana.

A licensed pharmacist in Missouri, he earned his bachelor of science degree in pharmacy from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, a master of science degree in pharmacy administration from the University of Tennessee, and a Ph.D. in pharmacy administration from Purdue University.

He has authored and co-authored 27 books and manuals, written chapters in eight textbooks, as well as articles on various areas of health economics, managed care coverage of pharmaceuticals, and financial management faxless payday advance.

Taking a break from his teaching and research, Schafermeyer sat with the Post-Dispatch last week for an interview on topics ranging from pharmacy costs for the average consumer, to the pricing of drugs for the elderly and the poor. What follows is an edited transcript:

Is the health care reform law making prescription medicines any more affordable for the average American?

The average American probably won’t see much change at all, because they already have health insurance. Their health insurance plan is already trying to do what it can to control drug costs, so most people won’t be affected.

The people who will be affected the most will be people with pre-existing conditions who can’t get health insurance. And it will effect those 32 million people who don’t have health insurance now who are expected to obtain health insurance as of 2014. For those people, the cost of prescription drugs is going to go way down because insurance will cover it. At least it will increase access.

People will have opportunities to get affordable health care without going to the emergency room and probably will seek earlier diagnosis and treatment