Mediaboss Marketing

Date: Wednesday Mar. 14, 2012 10:54 AM ET

Toronto's real estate agency is launching a full-court attack against a plan to make more information available online, including the names and addresses of home sellers.

The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) claims will invade the privacy of home sellers and buyers and may result in more fraud against its clients.

The country's largest real estate board says Canada's Competition Bureau is planning to release sensitive information about online real estate sales by removing safeguards used by its agents.

The Competition Bureau is demanding TREB release more information about its listings online, in a bid to even the competitive balance for online real estate websites.

In 2010, federal Competition Commissioner Melanie Aitken successfully fought to give private home sellers access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which is the primary service through which homes are bought and sold in Canada.

The real estate industry has grown its online presence in recent years. The industry's main site, Realtor.ca, allows clients to browse homes over the Internet. Some information is restricted on the site and a real estate agent must grant access.

The Competition Bureau now argues that TREB's information wall is unfair for independent online real estate sale sites and should be made publicly available. The case is expected to go before a competition tribunal in the fall.

If the change is implemented, the name and address of real estate sellers will be made available online, as will property floor plans and other information about homes for sale.

Negotiated sale prices and details of buyer mortgages would also be made publicly available, TREB said on Wednesday.

Link:
Online real estate listings invade privacy: TREB

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire -03/14/12)- Imperial Metals Corporation (TSX: III.TO - News) reports the resource at Ruddock Creek has increased to an Indicated Resource of 4.654 million tonnes and an Inferred Resource of 5.382 million tonnes at a 4.0% Pb+Zn cutoff. This represents an Indicated Resource tonnage increase of 99% and an Inferred Resource increase of 261% from the 43-101 compliant resource released in the July 2009 report. The combined Indicated Resource contains 695.0 million pounds zinc and 142.0 million pounds lead. An additional 794.0 million pounds zinc and 155.0 million pounds lead are contained in the combined Inferred Resource category at a 4.0% Pb+Zn cut-off.

The new mineral resource is documented in the Technical Report Ruddock Creek Lead-Zinc Project - Kamloops Mining Division, British Columbia(1) dated March 1, 2012 ("2012 Technical Report"). The 2012 Technical Report was prepared by Ronald G. Simpson, P.Geo., GeoSim Services Inc. and Jim Miller-Tait, P.Geo., Imperial Metals Corporation, both Qualified Persons for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Messrs. Simpson and Miller-Tait have reviewed the contents of this release.

The Company is pleased to announce it has received confirmation from joint venture partners Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co. Ltd. and Itochu Corporation that they will proceed with their Year 3 option to earn an additional 15% interest in the Ruddock Creek property by spending an additional $6.0 million by March 31, 2013.

The combined Ruddock Creek mineral resources tabulated below are from the Upper E, Lower E and the Creek zones. This area covers only 2 kilometres of the known strike length from drilling, mapping and sampling of the 5 kilometre length of the Ruddock Creek Sulphide Horizon. Metal prices used in the determination of the base case cut-off grade were US$1.00/lb for zinc and US$1.00/lb for lead.

Block model grade estimation was carried out using Gemcom Surpac software. For the E zone, block grades were estimated using ordinary kriging constrained by zone domains. Three kriging passes with incremental search distances were implemented. Blocks estimated in the first two passes using a maximum anisotropic search distance of 31 metres were classified as indicated. Blocks estimated in the third pass using a maximum anisotropic search distance of 100 metres were classified as inferred. Grades for the Creek zone were estimated using the inverse distance squared method. Otherwise, all search parameters were the same as those for the Lower E zone.

The 2012 Technical Report contains tables providing the mineral resource estimates for each zone, and estimates for each resource category. The Company expects to file the 2012 Technical Report on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) within 10 days, following which the 2012 Technical Report will be available on the Company's website.

RUDDOCK CREEK EXPLORATION UPDATE

The Creek zone is located 900 metres west of the E zone surface exposure. Diamond drilling carried out on the Creek zone in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011 has shown this horizon to be continuous over 600 metres down dip and 300 metres along strike from the surface showing. The mineralization dips gently to the north, plunges gently to the west and is up to 12.6 metres thick. The Creek zone appears to be a fault offset and uplift of the E zone mineralization. The strike, dip, mineralization and the presence of a barren pyrrhotite horizon located approximately 50 metres below the targeted base metal horizon are all characteristic the both the Lower E and Creek zones.

The proposed 2012 exploration program will continue to expand the Lower E zone using two underground diamond drills and utilizing the existing workings and drill bays. A bulk sample for metallurgical testing will be excavated from the Lower E zone during the 2012 underground program as well. Surface drilling will continue to expand the Creek zone west and south. A helicopter supported drill program will be designed to continue to explore and follow up on the highly successful 2011 drill program in the V zone area, located 3 kilometres west of the E zone outcrop.

Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co. Ltd. and Itochu Corporation have earned a 35% interest in the Ruddock Creek property by funding $14.0 million in exploration expenditures, and will earn an additional 15% working interest by funding a further $6.0 million in expenditures by March 31, 2013. At that time, the Ruddock Creek property will be held Imperial 50%, Mitsui 30% and Itochu 20%. Imperial will continue to operate the project through its wholly owned subsidiary Selkirk Metals Corp.

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Imperial Metals Corporation: Ruddock Creek Resource Tonnage Increased; JV Partners to Proceed With Year 3 Earn-In

With every passing year, the worlds appetite for energy continues to increase steadily. Governments and corporations alike are therefore constantly on the lookout for new energy sources or more efficient technology in this domain. For fast growing economies such as China and India, the situation is even more acute. Thus, prices of these invaluable resources are surging and investors could benefit from the situation by investing in the energy industry. Energy mutual funds are a superior option for forays into the industry as they reduce risks involved by holding widely diversified portfolios.

Below we will share with you 5 top rated energy mutual funds. Each has earned a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) as we expect these mutual funds to outperform their peers in the future. To view the Zacks Rank and past performance of all energy funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of funds.

BlackRock All-Cap Energy & Resources Investor A (NASDAQ:BACAX - News) seeks long-term capital appreciation. The fund invests a large share of its assets in equity securities of domestic and foreign energy and natural resource companies. It invests in around 25 to 30 securities at any point in time. This energy mutual fund is non-diversified and has a three year annualized return of 20.12%.

The energy mutual fund has a minimum initial investment of $1,000 and an expense ratio of 1.34% compared to a category average of 1.62%.

ProFunds Oil Equipment Services & Distribution (NASDAQ:OEPIX - News) invests the majority of its assets in equity securities or derivatives whose daily return corresponds to that of the Dow Jones U.S. Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution index. The energy mutual fund has a three year annualized return of 31.49%.

The fund manager is Hratch Najarian and he has managed this energy mutual fund since 2011.

T. Rowe Price New Era (NASDAQ:PRNEX - News) seeks both capital appreciation over the long term. At least two-thirds of the funds assets are invested in natural resource companies which could benefit from rising inflation. It also invests in companies outside the sector with strong earnings potential. The energy mutual fund has a three year annualized return of 18.45%.

As of December 2011, this energy mutual fund held 103 issues, with 4.64% of its total assets invested in Schlumberger NV.

Calvert Global Alternative Energy A (NASDAQ:CGAEX - News) invests a large share of its assets in domestic and foreign companies from the alternative energy sector. The fund focuses on acquiring common stocks of small and mid-cap companies. The energy mutual fund has a three year annualized return of - -9.31%.

The energy mutual fund has a minimum initial investment of $2,000 and an expense ratio of 1.85% compared to a category average of 1.62%.

Read more here:
Zacks #1 Ranked Energy Mutual Funds

US Airways has made no secret of its interest in a merger with American Airlines, and now its gobbling up Internet domain names in case they do agree to combine.

A spokesman for US Airways Group Inc. confirmed Tuesday that the company registered several domain addresses that include the names of both airlines, including usairways-american.com and american-usairways.com.

The spokesman, Andrew Christie, said US Airways bought the domain names to prevent anyone else from buying them and using the names in a way that might negatively impact our brand.

He declined to comment about a possible bid for American.

US Airways has publicly disclosed that it hired advisers to weigh a bid for AMR Corp.s American Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy protection in November.

A spokesman for American Airlines, Bruce Hicks, said the airline knew nothing about the domain names. AP

Economy looks better to the Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve sketched a mildly brighter view of the economy Tuesday after a burst of hiring since its last meeting in January. It took no further steps to aid the recovery and repeated its plan to keep short-term interest rates near zero through 2014.

After a one-day policy meeting, the Fed said unemployment should continue to decline gradually as the economy expands. It also noted that consumer spending and business investment have picked up.

And it took a more hopeful view of Europes debt crisis. Though the crisis still threatens the global economy, the danger has eased, the Fed said.

Link:
Briefly: Hoping to merge, airline collects domain names

GLASGOW, Scotland, March 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Web hosting and domain name company Easyspace gets UK business mobile for less than the cost of a cup of coffee

Leading web hosting and domain name company Easyspace has been chosen as the UK distribution partner for the goMobi website builder, a confirmed vendor on Google's GetMo initiative. The GetMo initiative was launched today (March 14) by Google to promote to UK businesses the benefits of building mobile specific websites.

Easyspace is providing the fulfilment platform for the goMobi website builder. The product is available from Easyspace for just 25.20 p.a., that's a 40% discount on the regular price of 42.00 p.a. Customers will also have the option to test the goMobi mobile website builder for free.

Sarah Haran, Managing Director of Easyspace, said: "Easyspace is proud to have been chosen as the UK partner for goMobi as part of this new Google initiative to promote the business benefits of having a mobile website. There has been an incredible rise in the use of mobile phones in the UK and we're delighted to be enabling businesses to react to this by providing them with the tools they need to go mobile. For less than the cost of a cup of coffee every month, businesses will be able to tap into a whole new mobile customer base."

The product is incredibly easy to use, highly functional, and incredibly cost effective. goMobi offers all the mobile specific features businesses need to get on the mobile web today, including click-to-call, m-commerce support, maps and directions, social networking, and custom analytics to mention but a few.

Google recently reported a 166% increase in mobile searches for top retail brands over Christmas in the UK. Yet 79% of large UK online advertisers had no mobile site to serve that traffic.

Eileen O'Sullivan, COO and CFO of goMobi parent company dotMobi, said: "We're excited to be part of Google's GetMo initiative in the UK with Easyspace and are looking forward to getting UK business on mobile."

Sarah Haran of Easyspace added: "It's vital that businesses showcase their products and services to customers who are increasingly mobile phone savvy. For online retailers a mobile version of your desktop website is an absolute must. Achieving this doesn't require long-term business planning. With the help of Easyspace you can create goMobi sites in a matter of minutes and the web pages created will work on any phone. By using goMobi through Easyspace, you'll be able to access a whole new audience which in turn could become a whole new customer base."

Easyspace is a subsidiary of AIM-listed iomart Group plc.

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Web Hosting and Domain Name Leader Easyspace Chosen as goMobi's UK Partner for the Google GetMo Programme