Vienna

The only thing that could have improved Vienna’s Christmas markets was if it had snowed.

The lights show couples — a man and a woman, two women or two men. Set up recently at 47 crossings, they were to be taken down in June, after the conclusion of several gay-friendly events.

Some Vienna pedestrian traffic lights are suddenly not only red or green. They’re also gay or straight. And Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party is livid.

Police estimated around 2,000 people participated in the protest Friday, forcing the closure of one downtown street. Some of the demonstrators exchanged long kisses.

VIENNA — A man who attacked Austria’s openly gay Greens politician Ulrike Lunacek by spraying butyric acid on her at Vienna’s LGBT pride parade last month, will not face charges because no injuries were sustained. While the suspect has been identified, yet remains at large, prosecutors say he will not be charged, as no one was injured.

VIENNA — Austria’s first openly gay politician was the victim of an attack at Friday’s annual LGBT pride parade in Vienna. An unknown assailant sprayed butyric acid at Ulrike Lunacek, leader of the Austrian Greens’ delegation to the European Parliament, as she was giving an interview on the sidelines of the parade.

VIENNA — Party-goers dressed in little more than body paint rubbed shoulders with men in tuxedoes and cross-dressers in wild costumes on Saturday, transforming Vienna’s City Hall into a fantasy land. But in the end, Conchita Wurst stole the show. The occasion, Europe’s biggest charity event, was serious: raising money for AIDS research.