Although he called the U.S. decision to lift restrictions on Cuban-Americans to visit or send money to relatives in Cuba a "positive step,"
VOA: standard.2009.09.29
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that Obama calledrelatives of Newtown, Connecticut, shooting victims who were in Washington for the vote to thank them for their efforts to pressure Congress to take up the gun proposals.
Mobile phone networks in London became overloaded on the day of the attacks as millions of people called friends and relatives to check they were safe.