Church pays €7m over protest

THE grieving father of a dead US soldier has won nearly $11 million (€7m) damages from a fundamentalist church that pickets military funerals as a campaign against homosexuality.

The Westboro Baptist Church believes the war in Iraq is a punishment for the tolerance of homosexuality in the US.

Albert Snyder sued after members demonstrated at the funeral of his son, Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who was killed in an accident in Iraq last year.