Fearful China 'trying to silence quake parents'

Parents whose children were crushed to death in schools that collapsed in China’s mighty earthquake say they are no longer being allowed to march, wave banners and vent their rage in public.

Officials are now using a variety of tactics – threats, money, promises of justice, or police muscle – to intimidate, appease or hush up grieving mothers and fathers who believe that nearly 7,000 classrooms crumbled so easily because corrupt and incompetent officials did not build them properly.