Fringe US group to picket funeral

A US fringe religious group that pickets military funerals with signs reading "Thank God for dead soldiers" says it will picket the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards, AFP reported.

Elizabeth Edwards, the high-profile wife of former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, died of cancer at 61 in her home in North Carolina on Tuesday.

"God hates Elizabeth Edwards! WBC will picket her funeral... Saturday December 11 from 11.30 to 1:30pm," the Westboro Baptist Church said in a vitriol-filled announcement posted on the Huffington Post website.

A lawyer, author and health care campaigner, Edwards inspired Americans as she battled cancer while serving as a top adviser on her husband's subsequent 2008 campaign, all the while secretly grappling with his marital infidelity.

In their announcement, the Westboro Baptist Church called John Edwards a "whorish" and "faithless" husband, and accused Elizabeth Edwards of "spewing blasphemy" because she said she was not praying to God to save her from cancer, AFP reported.

The Westboro Baptist Church is led by Fred Phelps and made up of around 50 members, most of them members of the extended Phelps family.

The US Supreme Court is currently weighing whether the Westboro Baptists are exercising their right to free speech or invading a grieving family's privacy when they picket military funerals.