Honolulu-based Barnwell Industries yesterday announced that it was selected to join the Russell Microcap Index.

The newly launched Russell Microcap Index, which debuted on July 1, is comprised of the smallest 1,000 securities issuers in the small-cap Russell 2000 Index along with the next-smallest 1,000 companies, based on a ranking of all U.S. equities by market capitalization. The index offers portfolio managers and other investors a barometer to compare their performances against the genuine microcap marketplace of stocks.

Barnwell Industries Inc. and its subsidiaries are principally engaged in exploring for, developing, producing and selling natural gas and oil in Canada, investing in leasehold land in Hawai'i, and drilling wells and maintaining water systems in the Islands.

ALA MOANA WILL RETAIL FRESH FISH

Ala Moana Center is adding fresh fish to the merchandise sold at the mall, with a combination restaurant/fish market to open early next year.

Ken Mitsusune, a hospitality industry executive born in Japan and raised in Europe, is to open Tsukiji Fish Market and Restaurant, a 350-seat restaurant with a market selling fish competitively priced with other local fish markets.

The operation is named after Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market, one of the largest fish markets in the world.

NATION WORLD

NEWS CORP. GRABS MYSPACE

MySpace.com, a Web site that's the flavor of the moment for teenagers and young hipsters, has attracted a lucrative new demographic: a 74-year-old billionaire.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. agreed yesterday to acquire Intermix Media Inc., the parent company of MySpace, for $580 million in cash. The deal accelerates the rush of old-media giants snapping up fast-growing Internet ventures in the pursuit of the advertising dollars flowing onto the Web.

BIOFUEL FOUND LESS EFFICIENT

Farmers, businesses and state officials are investing millions of dollars in ethanol and biofuel plants, but a new study says the alternative fuels burn more energy than they produce.

Researchers at Cornell University and the University of California-Berkeley say it takes 29 percent more fossil energy to turn corn into ethanol than the amount of fuel the process produces. It takes 27 percent more energy to turn soybeans into biodiesel fuel and more than double the energy produced is needed to do the same to sunflower plants, the study found.