Cloned baby due, cult claims

A Canadian cult that believes human life was created by aliens claims that one of its followers will give birth to the world's first cloned baby by the end of the year.

A biochemist working for the Raelians - who have attracted outrage for their work on genetics - said the cult's biotechnology company, Clonaid, would deliver the baby by caesarian section sometime around Christmas.

The clone had been created by inserting genetic material from an infertile woman into another woman's egg cell, then transplanting the embryo into the womb of the original woman, said Dr Brigitte Boisselier - meaning that the mother would give birth to an exact genetic replica of herself.

"We are well advanced, and the first baby is due for the end of this year," Dr Boisselier told the Boston Globe. "We are expecting a healthy girl."

The credibility of the claim is hard to assess, not least since Claude Vorilhon, the cult's founder, says he was abducted by aliens and taken to another planet where he had sex with female robots and met Jesus, Mohammed and the Buddha.

Mr Vorilhon and Dr Boisselier have previously been called to testify before Congress on cloning, and the group is believed to have millions of dollars to operate laboratories in Canada, the US and elsewhere.