The Chinese government estimates that it will cost $147 billion to rebuild from the massive earthquake that struck the central part of the country in May, state media have reported. The National Development and Reform Commission's draft rebuilding plan published this week includes new homes for more than three million rural households, as well as the creation of jobs for about one million people, China Daily, a state-run newspaper, reported Wednesday. Some 3,400 primary schools needed to be rebuilt in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, and another 2,600 schools needed to be strengthened, it said. Thousands of children died when their shoddily built schools collapsed in the earthquake. The collapses became an emotionally charged and politically sensitive' issue when the parents of dead children staged protests demanding investigations. (AP)