Couple’s Separation: Was It Forced or Requested?

South African police say they were merely escorting the woman after she requested protection. But her lover, a black man, is accusing authorities of taking his white fiancee from their home against her will. Jerry Tsie and Annette Heunis had kept their months-long relationship a secret until the New Year, when Heunis told of her lover and was shunned by her family and white friends. Apparently content despite the chilling response, Heunis two weeks ago told the Sunday Star newspaper: “I’ve found true love and I’m not about to give it up because of people’s narrow attitudes.” But, last Friday, a police spokesman said that police “at the request of Miss Heunis, escorted her from where she was residing (in Kutluanong in the Orange Free State) to an undisclosed location. She was never arrested . . . and police merely afforded protection to a person who believed that her safety was being threatened.” Tsie says police took Heunis without her consent, the black newspaper Sowetan reported Thursday. Tsie told reporters that, after Heunis left, an anonymous phone caller told him a “lovers’ hit squad” planned to kill him.

--Drug charges against Joey Heatherton have been dismissed but not before the judge warned the entertainer to “set yourself straight.” Heatherton, 42, was arrested Aug. 30, 1986, after she allegedly assaulted her former manager and companion, Jerry Fischer, during an argument. At the time of her arrest, she allegedly handed police her pocketbook to look for identification. While searching through the bag, they discovered a little less than a gram of cocaine. A judge later ruled that the evidence had been illegally seized and on Thursday the charges were dropped. “This case is being dismissed based on a technicality,” said Ramapo Town Justice Arnold Etelson in Suffern, N.Y. “I hope for your own benefit, this has been an experience for you. . . . I think you should set yourself straight. . . . “

--Two vintage Rolls-Royces once owned by the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi are being returned to Iran’s revolutionary government after a 10-year exile. The cars, a 1922 Silver Shadow and an armor-plated 1956 Phantom 4--one of only 18 made--were flown to Britain for servicing by the former shah just before he was toppled in 1979. They are now worth an estimated $885,000. Rolls-Royce had stored the cars at its headquarters in the northwestern English town of Crewe until a court ruling last week ordered the cars’ return.