Baby with two faces born in Indian village

Baby Lali is doing well and being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess.
Photograph: AP Photo/Gurinder Osan

INDIA:  A BABY born with two faces - two noses, two pairs of lips, two pairs of eyes - has been worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess in her northern Indian village, where the one-month old is healthy and doing well.

Hundreds of pilgrims have visited the baby, named Lali, and her impoverished parents to touch her feet out of respect and receive blessings from her.

Director of Saifi Hospital Sabir Ali says the baby has caused a sensation in the dusty village of Saini, 25 miles from New Delhi.

When she left the hospital, eight hours after a normal delivery, she was swarmed by villagers.

The child apparently has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces.

© 2008 AP

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times