Federal Prosecutors Dept: BALTIMORE - The sports gambling site Bodog has been shut down and four Canadians have been indicted, including founder Calvin Ayre, for illegal gambling that generated more than $100 million in winnings, U.S. federal prosecutors announced Tuesday, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Ayre, who's originally from Lloydminster, Sask., posted a statement on his website Tuesday saying that his company did not take bets in the U.S, where financial transactions involving online gambling service providers are illegal and bodog gambling founder Calvin Ayre poses for a photograph after an interview in his hotel room on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 in Toronto. The sports gambling site Bodog was shut down and four Canadians indicted, including Ayre, for illegal gambling that generated more than $100 million in winnings, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette The website's domain name was seized Monday and the indictments, which were handed down Feb. 22, were unveiled Tuesday in Baltimore, prosecutors said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Bruno Van Der Pluijm Dept: The land of chocolate, beer and waffles would like to expand its relationship with Manitoba, according to Winnipeg Free Press. "We want to take stock of where we are in terms of a bilateral relationship and see where we can take it to another level. It's mainly trade-related but it can also be in higher education. There are many areas where collaboration could be intensified," he said and bruno van der Pluijm, Belgium's ambassador to Canada, is in Winnipeg this week. Bruno van der Pluijm, Belgium's ambassador to Canada, is in town this week to do some fact finding and meet with Premier Greg Selinger, and representatives from industry and the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Gary Peters Dept: Gary Peters spent almost five hours at the Canada Border Services Agency offices in Mississauga, Ont., where he was questioned about the Montreal-based engineering giant's role in financing some of his international travels, according to Vancouver Sun. SNC-Lavalin announced earlier on Tuesday it had launched an independent investigation into $35-million worth of improperly documented payments related to construction projects "and certain other contracts" in the last quarter of 2011 and the Ontario private security contractor who helped dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's family flee Libya during last year's revolution was grilled by Canadian immigration officials Tuesday about his ties to SNC-Lavalin. Asked what the CBSA officers wanted to know about SNC-Lavalin, Mr. Peters replied: "What trips they paid for, how much they paid, who paid, who was the contact. That's what they were asking about that. How I got paid." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Meryl Streep Dept: Meryl Streep has won an Oscar for her role in The Iron Lady and Jean Dujardin picked up an Oscar for his role in The Artist, according to The Star. Plummer won the best-supporting actor prize tonight for his turn as a widower who embraces his homosexuality in Beginners and lOS ANGELES The Artist' won for best picture on Sunday at the Academy Awards. And at the age of 82, stage and screen legend Christopher Plummer finally has an Academy Award . (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

U.S. Attorney's Office Dept: Also indicted were three of Ayre's associates who, until last year, operated out of a Bodog-related office at 333 Seymour St. in downtown Vancouver, according to Vancouver Sun. The indictment was filed a week ago and unsealed by the U.S. Attorney's office in Baltimore on Tuesday. None of the four men has been arrested and internet gambling mogul Calvin Ayre, who taunted U.S. federal authorities from his luxury penthouse in Yaletown, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland for allegedly running an illegal sports gambling enterprise and conspiring to launder money. They are Vancouver chartered accountant James Philip also a director of NovaGold Resources Inc. ; former controller and head of e-commerce David Ferguson, who commuted to Vancouver from his home in Kelowna but is now believed to be living in London; and media buyer Derrick Maloney. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Rustem Tursunbayev Dept: Rustem Tursunbayev, 49, was detained by Toronto police and the Canada Border Services Agency on Feb. 10 after Interpol issued a red notice which seeks an arrest for future extradition on behalf of Kazakhstan in July 2011. Tursunbayev had been living in a King City mansion with his wife and two children since 2009, according to The Star. We decided that we couldn t proceed until we knew how serious the condition was, he said. We can t really set a date until we know what the prognosis is. A former vice president of a Kazakh nuclear company accused of embezzling roughly $20 million from his government suffered a possible heart attack at Toronto West Detention Centre Tuesday, one day before he was to appear before a detention review. The hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board is postponed indefinitely, said Tursunbayev s lawyer, Lorne Waldman. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Guelph Dept: OTTAWA - Court documents show a cellphone in the robocalls affair was registered to Pierre Poutine of Separatist Street in Joliette, Que, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Voters in Guelph reported getting calls from a phone number with a 450 area code directing them to the wrong polling station and a student from the University of Guelph takes part in a rally as Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrives for a campaign event in Guelph Ont., on Monday, April 4, 2011. Court documents show a cellphone in the robocalls affair was registered to Pierre Poutine of Separatist Street in Joliette, Que. Elections Canada's chief investigator says the clearly fake name was likely used to cover the tracks of whoever was behind misleading and harassing calls to voters in Guelph, Ont., in the last federal election.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Elections Canada's chief investigator says the clearly fake name was likely used to cover the tracks of whoever was behind misleading and harassing calls to voters in Guelph, Ont., in the last federal election. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Ontario Council Of Agencies Serving Immigrants OCASI Dept: The federal government will not renew its $9 million, five-year funding to the five Metropolis research centres in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Halifax when the grant runs out in 2013, according to The Star. If you want to make policies based on opinions instead of what the facts are, you get rid of the facts, said John Campey, of Social Planning Toronto, which founded the Ontario centre in 1996, along with United Way Toronto and the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants OCASI , in partnership with three Toronto universities and ottawa plans to stop funding a research network whose findings have helped improve Canada s immigration policies and settlement programs, the Star has learned. Critics say the cut is another blow to researchers and community groups who have already lost the reliable data gleaned from the mandatory long-form census, which the Conservatives ended in 2010. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Matthew David Kohn Dept: WASHINGTON - For one 55-year-old professor, what started out as an overseas trip to the doctor has become part of the shadowy U.S. struggle with Iran, according to Winnipeg Free Press. But the Atarodi case bears another hallmark of the long-running U.S.-Iran conflict: It is cloaked in secrecy and this handout provided by Matthew David Kohn, taken in February 2012 in Los Angeles shows Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi. Arriving at Los Angeles international airport Dec. 7, Atarodi, stepped off of a long flight from Iran expecting to be met by his brother in the arrivals hall. But the 54-year-old microchip scientist, who came to the U.S. in part to seek treatment for a serious heart ailment, was promptly arrested, locked up for almost two months and is now mostly confined to his brother's Los Angeles-area home after posting $460,000 bond. AP Photo/Matthew David Kohn The arrest in Los Angeles in December of Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi, a U.S.-educated electrical engineer who teaches at a leading Iranian university, comes as the U.S. uses export controls to try to restrict Iran's acquisition of U.S. technology, including for its military and nuclear programs. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Federal Prosecutors Dept: The website s domain name was seized Monday and the indictments, which were handed down Feb. 22, were unveiled Tuesday in Baltimore, prosecutors said, according to The Chronicle Herald. The indictments follow federal prosecutions last year of three of the biggest websites involved in online poker. More than 75 company bank accounts in 14 countries have been frozen, and authorities are seeking $3 billion in fines and restitution in that investigation and bALTIMORE The sports gambling site Bodog was shut down and four Canadians indicted, including founder Calvin Ayre, for illegal gambling that generated more than $100 million in winnings, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. In addition to the 50-year-old Ayre, originally from Lloydminster, Sask., prosecutors say the indictment names website operators James Philip, David Ferguson and Derrick Maloney. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.