Obama and First Lady remember Sandy Hook victims

President Obama has marked the anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school with a moment of silence at the White House.

Before pausing to remember the Connecticut school tragedy a year ago, the president and first lady Michelle Obama lit 26 votive candles set up on a table in the Map Room - one candle for each of the 20 children and six staff members who were killed.

Church bells in Newtown, Connecticut, rang 26 times as the names of each of the victims were read at the town's St Rose of Lima church, one of several houses of worship that held private services for a community still grieving the deaths.