A bill to ease laws on the purchase of gun silencers is gaining momentum even as the US reels from the horror of one of the deadliest killings in its history, writes Bette Browne.

Families of Virginia Tech shooting victims reacted with fury after it emerged that the gunman's missing mental health records were found at the home of a former campus clinic chief more than two years after the incident.

Students and staff of the German high school where a teenager killed himself and 16 others in 2002 today paid tribute to the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting as they marked the fifth anniversary of their own tragedy.

China today said it was regrettable that some US media reports were quick to blame a Chinese student for the Virginia Tech massacre.

PHOTOS, videos, prayers and rumours spread across the internet within minutes of the Virginia Tech massacre as people from around the world used websites to mourn the victims and get the latest information about the shootings.