While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 9

Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn said on Friday his elder sister's announcement she is running for prime minister in the March 24 election is "inappropriate" and unconstitutional, likely sinking her candidacy for a populist opposition party.

Former princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, 67, stunned the nation when she announced on Friday she would be the sole prime ministerial candidate for the party, which is loyal to ousted ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Her candidacy instantly threatened to upend the first national ballot since a military coup in 2014 that ousted a government loyal to Thaksin, the figure at the centre of years of political turbulence and rival street protests that have riven Thai society.

But the opposition from Ms Ubolratana's younger brother, a constitutional monarch, is likely to lead to her disqualification by the Election Commission.

A Canadian man who gunned down six members of a Quebec City mosque in 2017 was sentenced to life in prison on Friday, with the judge saying he would be eligible for parole after serving 40 years behind bars.

Alexandre Bissonnette, 29, pleaded guilty last year to six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder for the attack, one of Canada's rare mass shootings.

Justice Francois Huot said Bissonnette's actions in entering the mosque at the end of prayers and shooting congregants were not a terrorist attack, but motivated by prejudice, particularly towards Muslim immigrants..

For years, members of Toronto's gay community warned that there was a serial killer on the loose, that vulnerable men were going missing, that the streets were not safe. They were right.

On Friday, Bruce McArthur, a 67-year-old landscaper and former mall Santa, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years on eight counts of first-degree murder, ending a trial that shocked a city - and a country - that likes to see itself as inclusive and safe.

McArthur was accused of killing and dismembering eight men between 2010 and 2017, hiding seven of the corpses in planters and the eighth in a ravine.

Roger Federer is no longer chasing the top ranking and would rather be a contender at Grand Slams than battling Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal to be world number one, the Swiss tennis great said on Friday.

The 20-times Grand Slam champion has held back the clock in the twilight of his remarkable career and became the ATP's oldest world number one last year a few weeks after clinching his sixth Australian Open at the age of 36.

Federer saw his bid for a seventh title at Melbourne Park crushed last month by up-and-coming Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last 16 and having slipped to sixth in the rankings, he says his priorities have shifted.

Veteran British actor Albert Finney, who starred in films including Murder On The Orient Express and Erin Brockovich, has died at the age of 82, a family spokesman said on Friday.

Finney, who received four best actor Oscar nominations and won three Golden Globes, "passed away peacefully after a short illness with those closest to him by his side", the spokesman said.

Finney was a Shakespearian actor who mixed his movie career with television roles with acclaimed stage performances.