In a somewhat peculiar development in the scientific community today, China Daily reported that its motherland has produced the first cloned rabbit from cells taken from a fetus. "Chinese cloning research has reached a global advanced level," said Wang Hongguang, director of the China Centre for Biotechnology Development.

Although swamped immediately with claims from the international scene that French scientists have accomplished that same feat five years earlier, China Daily clarified that the "Chinese rabbit" was first to be cloned using "fibroblast" cells from a fetus.

As of press time, independent, third-party review or official publication of the find has yet to surface, inviting speculations that the discovery could turn out to be another South Korean cloning controversy - albeit no involvement of human cells.

The female rabbit grew steadily and normally since birth in February and currently resides in an animal center in Shanghai. The rabbit shares the same fate as many other animals such as mice and cattle, after the first cloned sheep, named Dolly, was attempted and successful back in 1996. Image courtesy of Daily Mail.