Five arrested after anti-gay funeral protest

Five people face criminal charges after a weekend confrontation with members of a Kansas church group that pickets military funerals because it believes US casualties in Iraq are a sign of God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality, authorities said today.

Less than a dozen members of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, gathered in Seaford yesterday for a protest in conjunction with the funeral of Marine Cpl Cory Palmer, a local resident who died earlier this month from injuries suffered in Iraq.