SEPARATED. WILLIAM CARLING, 29, the chunky, hunky captain of England's international rugby team whose rumored summer trysts with Princess Diana made tabloid headlines; from JULIA SMITH, 30, owner of a public relations firm and television presenter; after a 15-month marriage; in London. The surprising split came despite an apparent reconciliation and reports that Carling had promised to terminate his friendship with the princess. The Rugby Union announced that the Carlings were separating, adding unconvincingly that "no one else was involved."

SENTENCED. SIEGLINDE HOFMANN, 50, hard core member of Germany's terrorist Red Army Faction; to life in prison for complicity in the 1977 kidnap-murder of Stuttgart industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer and four bodyguards; in Stuttgart. Hofmann, a former University of Heidelberg medical student, was also given a concurrent, 14-year sentence for the attempted 1979 assassination of nato Supreme Commander Alexander Haig. Hofmann was charged in both cases just before she was scheduled for early release from a 15-year prison sentence for the 1977 attempted kidnapping of Dresdner Bank chairman Jurgen Ponto, who died in the attack. Hofmann, who refused to be present during the proceedings, has neither admitted nor denied the charges.

ENGAGED. JACKIE COLLINS, 53, sultry best-selling author of sex-drenched, tell-all tales such as Hollywood Wives and The World Is Full of Married Men; to fiftyish Los Angeles shopping-center tycoon Frank Calcagnini; in Venice. The couple met 25 years ago while she was still married to her second husband and have been dating for almost two years. "We're passionate best friends," Collins, a widow for the past two years, said in a statement. This is Collins' third marriage.

WOUNDED. MATILD MANUKYAN, 78, onetime celebrated beauty and Turkey's most famous madam; in a presumed bomb blast in front of her eight-story apartment building that killed her driver and bodyguard and injured two others; in Istanbul. Manukyan, whose 32 brothels and other real estate interests made her a multimillionaire, won almost as much renown for her record income tax payments; she was hospitalized with a broken leg and remains in stable condition. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

DIED. DIANA CHIN HSU, 77, journalist and widow of Mo Tze Shin, chief of Chiang Kai-shek's secret police; in New York City. Hsu, whose book Mao Tse-tung Killed My Husband was an Asian best seller after her husband was executed by the communists in 1951, worked in the 1950s and '60s for the Taiwanese government newspaper Central Daily News, chiefly as New York City correspondent. Hsu returned to the international limelight in 1985 when, at Beijing's invitation, she revisited China despite her vociferous criticisms of the government and over many objections in Taipei.

DIED. GERD BUCERIUS, 89, founder of Die Zeit, a leading German political and cultural weekly and one of the best-known publishing magnates in postwar Germany; in Hamburg. A lawyer by training, he defended Jews persecuted during the Nazi period until he was barred from legal work. After serving in the postwar German Parliament as a Christian Democrat, Bucerius quit in 1962 to focus on publishing. He was a publisher of Die Zeit until 1985, when he handed it over to former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Bucerius was also part owner of Stern magazine.