His difformed left hand, due to a birth defect, laying on a reading book, Zhang Jian (left) sits among fellow pupils in a classroom in Zhongyang, Shanxi, China, on November 16, 2008. China's rate of birth defects had risen from 104.9 per 10,000 births in 2001, to 145.5 in 2006, China's National Population and Family Planning Commission said in a report on its web site (www.chinapop.gov.cn). China's coal-rich northern province of Shanxi, a centre of noxious emissions from large-scale coke and chemical industries, had the highest rate of birth defects, Xinhua news agency said. Photo by Lucas Schifres/Pictobank
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