BBC: A senior family planning official in China has noted an alarming rise in the number of babies with birth defects, a Chinese media report says. Jiang Fan, from China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission, said environmental pollution was a cause of the increase. The coal-mining heartland of Shanxi province had the biggest problem. China has reported the trend before, and it was not clear if Mr Jiang was commenting on new or old statistics. A 2007 …