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Monarchy This article is more than 8 years oldPants? Queen Victoria's underwear sold for £12,000 at auctionThis article is more than 8 years oldA pair of royal cotton knickers with a 45in (114cm) waist is sold for a record price to a private English collector, along with set of replica crown jewels A pair of Queen Victoria’s cotton knickers with a 45in (114cm) waistband have fetched £12,090 at auction. They were sold alongside nightdresses, stockings and hats worn by Victoria and her third child, Princess Alice.

Cardiff This article is more than 4 years oldRunner who died after breaking leg could have survived, coroner saysThis article is more than 4 years oldInquest rules misdiagnosis and failure to x-ray Sarah-Jayne Roche to be ‘gross failure’ A runner who died after a broken leg sustained during a half marathon was misdiagnosed as a pulled hamstring was the victim of “gross failings and neglect”, a coroner has concluded. Sarah-Jayne Roche, 39, who has two children, died as she was operated on 12 days after she collapsed during the Cardiff half marathon.

Thailand This article is more than 14 years oldWife of murdered yachtsman describes ordeal at hands of piratesThis article is more than 14 years oldLinda Robertson was left 'trussed up naked like a chicken' as attackers killed husband and ransacked boatA British woman today described how she escaped after being "trussed up naked like a chicken" for nine hours by pirates who had killed her husband and ransacked the couple's boat off the Thai coast.

Observer book of the weekAutobiography and memoirReviewThe poet’s powerful account of his romance with a depressed young Swedish man is a revealing portrait of language, passion and belief This extraordinary memoir by the poet Seán Hewitt suggested itself after he had made a brutally impersonal discovery. While trawling the internet, he stumbled, in a moment of casual curiosity, upon something he had not known – that a young man with whom he had been romantically involved at Cambridge had died before his time (there is a non-invasive sensitivity about Hewitt’s decision to leave the reader to guess at what must have happened).

Céline Dion This article is more than 1 month oldCéline Dion ‘doesn’t have control over her muscles’ due to illness, says sisterThis article is more than 1 month oldClaudette Dion said singer’s future career was uncertain due to symptoms of stiff person syndrome, though ‘the idea is to return to the stage’ Céline Dion “doesn’t have control over her muscles”, her sister has said, as the singer lives with an autoimmune disease called stiff person syndrome.

Fashion statementFashionIn this week’s newsletter: The weather outside might be frightful, but style-setters are ditching their trousers for briefs. It isn’t the first time pants have needled norms Don’t get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up here While a pair of pants is usually the first thing you put on when getting dressed, they have become the final item more recently; the cherry atop the bakewell tart. In the topsy-turvy world of style this season, celebrities and party-goers have ditched their trousers, despite the cold.

Pop and rockObituaryLouis Johnson obituaryPowerful bassist on Michael Jackson’s albums Thriller and Off the Wall, he found fame in the 1970s with his funk band the Brothers Johnson The muscular bass lines played by Louis Johnson as a session musician on Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall and Thriller albums are known to millions – in particular his classic, driving bass part for the Jackson song Billie Jean. But Johnson, who has died unexpectedly aged 60, also had a highly successful career in his own right – or more accurately, with his brother, George, with whom he featured in the Brothers Johnson, a funk and R&B band that sold millions of records in the 1970s and early 80s.

UFOs This article is more than 11 months oldPrepare for wave of extraterrestrial sightings in UK, say UFO expertsThis article is more than 11 months oldUnknown origins of three of four flying objects shot down over North America renews interest in contact with alien lifeforms When unidentified flying objects began being spotted over the US and Canada, there was quite a stir among amateur ufologists. UFO discussion forums lit up with theories about the origins and purpose of these floating entities – were they sent by intelligent lifeforms from outer space or was there an explanation closer to home?

The serene beauty of Libya – in pictures Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Award-winning photographer Charlie Waite documents the stunning landscapes of Libya – taken in the days leading up to the revolution that deposed the dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 – for an exhibition, Silent Exchange, at the Lyttleton Gallery until 16 August. All photographs: Charlie Waite photography.