February 9, 2006

IT is easy to be suckers for romance, to be consumed by the seductive qualities of Piazza Castello, a festive square where white lights crisscross stone streets, linking Baroque arches and connecting neo-Classical style. Amid the twinkling milieu, glowing celestial shapes and planetary orbs dangle above captivated pedestrians. Against a night sky, the live wires form an incandescent web -- and a lovers' trap. Beyond the hearts, moons and stars, beyond the quixotic Olympic idealism, there is the true grit of a sprawling city and the reality of the Winter Games.

It is the greatest threat to New York Republicans in the race for governor this year: The state Conservative Party is increasingly opposed to the Republicans' favored candidate, William F. Weld, and is willing to run a candidate of its own. That move could split the right and hand the race to the Democrats, leaders in both parties say. With the Conservatives preparing to meet in Albany for an annual conclave on Monday, their chairman, Michael Long, said that more party committeemen were moving away from Mr. Weld every day because of his support for abortion rights and gay rights and his past praise for gay marriage.

New Jersey Nets defeat New York Knicks, 96-83; photos (M)

Ian Schrager, hotelier, is developing luxury condos on Bond Street in downtown Manhattan in league with highbrow Swiss architectural team of Herzog & de Meuron; condo's 11-story facade will be made entirely of cast glass with greenish hue; 27 units will include five 'town houses' or triplex apartments, abovewhich will be 22 loftlike dwellings ranging from one-bedroom to four-bedroom apartments; it will sell for $2,800 a swaure foot; photos (M)

It is a hard-to-fathom chain of events: a rookie police officer, assaulted at a White Castle restaurant in the Bronx, is shot three times by a fellow officer responding to a 911 call. Given little chance of surviving, the young officer defies the odds and keeps living. For 11 days.