[JURIST] Canada’s House of Commons [official website] on Wednesday passed bill S-226 [text], the “Magnitsky Act,” which would allow for the Canadian government to take “restrictive measures in respect of foreign nationals responsible for gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

These actions include sanctioning, freezing assets, or denying entry of foreign citizens of countries with human rights violations or corruption.

Spain’s Constitutional Court [official website] on Thursday ordered the suspension of Catalonia’s planned parliamentary session on independence next week warning Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell and other members of his speakers’ board that they will be subject to prosecution if they proceeded with the session.

There was no immediate reaction from Catalan leaders, but Catalan’s local officials have previously ignored the Constitutional Court’s orders and the leaders even held an independence referendum on Sunday, which was interrupted by Spanish police attempting to hinder voting, ultimately leading to violent clashes.

The lower house of the French parliament on Tuesday voted 415-127 to approve an anti-terrorism bill [materials, in French] that would increase police surveillance powers and enable authorities to close places of worship easier that are suspected of being a threat to national security.

Police would have the authority, through judicial approval, to raid private property and restrict people’s movements if they are suspect as a threat to national security.

The German public prosecutor accusesd [press release] nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) [BBC backgrounder] leader, Frauke Petry [twitter] Wednesday, of giving false statements about campaign finance under oath.

Petry is accused of lying to a committee of the regional parliament in Saxony [official website] in 2015 regarding the AfD’s finances during Saxony’s 2014 election.

Spain’s High Court [official website] announced on Wednesday that Calalonia’s police and organizers are under investigation for sedition, most notably Catalonia’s regional police, Josep Lluis Trapero.

Egyptian authorities are waging an anti-lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and intersex (LGBTI) campaign, having arrested a total of 33 individuals, according to a statement [press release] by Amnesty International (AI) on Monday.

The crackdown began because of a rainbow flag being displayed at the Mashrou’ Leila concert in Cairo in late September, which resulted into an investigation by the Public Prosecutor Nabil Sadiq.

In September, a few days after the flag incident, six men were arrested [press release] for promoting sexual deviancy and debauchery.

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, was convicted and sentenced [RT report] by a Moscow court to 20 days in jail on Monday after for calling on his supporters to join him in an unauthorized rally in Nizhny Nov­gorod.

Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev [official website] signed [RFE/RL report] an agreement Monday demarcating 85 percent of the 1,280 kilometer Kyrgyz-Uzbek border.

Carles Puigdemont, leader of the Catalonia government, announced [BBC report] Monday that the autonomous Spanish region had “won the right to an independent state in the form of a republic” after conducting a heated referendum in the region, despite the action being opposed by many international actors.

Germany’s new same-sex marriage law took effect on Sunday, allowing Karl Kreile and Bodo Mende, a couple for 38 years, to be the first same-sex couple to marry in the country.

Bangladesh and Myanmar officials agreed on Monday to a plan for the repatriation of more than half a million Rohingya Muslim refugees who have fled across the border to Bangladesh.