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LONDON (AP) — One of the world's most popular weed-killers — and the most widely used kind in the U.S. — has been labeled a probable carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

The decision was made by IARC, the France-based cancer research arm of the World Health Organization, which considered the status of five insect and weed killers including glyphosate, which is used globally in industrial farming.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which makes its own determinations, said it would consider the French agency's evaluation.

The French agency has four levels of risks for possible cancer-causing agents: known carcinogens, probable or possible carcinogens, not classifiable and probably not carcinogenic. Glyphosate now falls in the second level of concern.

The new classification is aimed mainly at industrial use of glyphosate. Its use by home gardeners is not considered a risk. Glyphosate is in the same category of risk as things like anabolic steroids and shift work. The decision was published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet Oncology.

According to the French agency, glyphosate is used in more than 750 different herbicide products and its use has been detected in the air during spraying, in water and in food. Experts said there was "limited evidence" in humans that the herbicide can cause non-Hodgkins lymphoma and there is convincing evidence that glyphosate can also cause other forms of cancer in rats and mice. IARC's panel said glyphosate has been found in the blood and urine of agricultural workers, showing the chemical has been absorbed by the body.

Monsanto and other producers of glyphosate-containing herbicides, strongly disagreed with the decision. "All labeled uses of glyphosate are safe for human health," said Monsanto's Phil Miller, global head of regulatory and government affairs, in a statement.

The EPA's 2012 assessment of glyphosate concluded that it met the statutory safety standards and that the chemical could "continue to be used without unreasonable risks to people or the environment."

The French agency's experts said the cancer risks of the weed killer were mostly from occupational exposure.

"I don't think home use is the issue," said Kate Guyton of IARC. "It's agricultural use that will have the biggest impact. For the moment, it's just something for people to be conscious of."

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. must release photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal judge has ruled in a long-running clash over letting the world see potentially disturbing images of how the military treated prisoners.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein's ruling Friday gives the government, which has fought the case for over a decade, two months to decide whether to appeal before the photos could be released.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been seeking to make the photos, including images from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, public in the name of holding government accountable.

"The photos are crucial to the public record," said Jameel Jaffer, ACLU deputy legal director. "They're the best evidence of what took place in the military's detention centers."

The Defense Department is studying the ruling and will make any further responses in court, spokesman Lt. Col. Myles Caggins III said.

The fight over the photographs reaches back to the early years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it invokes the images of abuse at Abu Ghraib that sparked international outrage after they emerged in 2004 and 2006. Early in the 2004 lawsuit, the ACLU pointed to the Abu Ghraib photos as priority examples of records the organization was seeking on the treatment of detainees.

It's unclear how many more photographs may exist. The government has said it has 29 relevant pictures from at least seven different sites in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it's believed to have perhaps hundreds or thousands more, Hellerstein said in a ruling in August. He said some photos he had seen "are relatively innocuous while others need more serious consideration," and he has ruled that any images that would be released would be redacted to protect the identities of people in them.

Some photographs, taken by service members in Iraq and Afghanistan, were part of criminal investigations of alleged abuse. Some images show "soldiers pointing pistols or rifles at the heads of hooded and handcuffed detainees," then-Solicitor General — now Supreme Court Justice — Elena Kagan wrote in an appeal to the high court earlier in the case, which has taken a long road through the courts and Congress.

The government has long argued that releasing the photographs could incite attacks against U.S. forces and government personnel abroad, and officials have said that risk hasn't abated as the U.S. military role in Iraq and Afghanistan lessened.

Indeed, "the danger associated with release of these photographs is heightened now," amid the rise of the Islamic State militant group, Navy Rear Adm. Sinclair Harris, the vice director for operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a December court filing. Islamic State, he said "would use these photographs to further encourage its supporters and followers to attack U.S. military and government personnel."

The ACLU said it was inappropriate to give the government that kind of censorial power.

"To allow the government to suppress any image that might provoke someone, somewhere, to violence would be to give the government sweeping power to suppress evidence of its own agents' misconduct," Jaffer said.

Amid the lawsuit, Congress passed a 2009 law allowing the government to keep the photos secret if the secretary of defense certified that unveiling them would endanger U.S. citizens or government or military personnel.

Defense secretaries have since done so, but Hellerstein said the government hasn't been specific enough.

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BLT sandwiches may need to add an A to the acronym -- for antibiotics.

Soaring demand for meat across the world has caused a major uptick in the amount of antimicrobial drugs in pork, beef and poultry, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

But as bacon sales sizzle and China -- where pork is the favored meat -- becomes wealthier, pig farmers around the world are meeting demand by using about four times as much antibiotics per pound of meat as cattle ranchers. Poultry is a close second.

This charts shows that pigs, for the most part, consume the highest density and amount of antibiotics.

The antibiotics serve two purposes. First, they help fatten up livestock at a faster rate. Second, they keep animals healthy despite being raised in overcrowded, filthy conditions where disease spreads easily.

In 2010, farmers around the world used more than 63,000 tons of antibiotics to raise livestock. By 2030, the researchers expect that number to rise to more than 105,000 tons.

"People are getting richer and want to eat more meat," Thomas Van Boeckel, an epidemiologist at Princeton University and an author of the study, told The Huffington Post by phone. "Antibiotics help to provide a lot of meat for people who can afford it."

Consumption of antibiotic-fed meat poses a major threat to humanity. Exposure to human antibiotics through meat has given rise to antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," which some researchers suggest could kill up to 10 million people worldwide by 2050 if left unchecked.

As awareness of this threat grows, some companies have removed antibiotics from their meat supply. Earlier this month, McDonald's vowed to remove human antibiotics from its chicken supply, though animal antibiotics would continue to be used and the human drugs would remain in beef and pork products. Chicken chain Chick-fil-A removed all antibiotics from its chicken last year.

But Chipotle remains the food industry's poster child for antibiotic-free meat. The burrito chain showed its commitment earlier this year when it suffered a pork shortage after discovering issues with its supplier.

Still, the industry seems unlikely to change unless more consumers demand antibiotic-free meat. Legislation has done little to stymie the growth of the use of antibiotics in the United States. In China, no such legislation exists.

"If things change at all, it'll be because customers demand better products, like organic bacon," Van Boeckel said. "But, of course, not everyone can afford that."

OMRANE SUPERIEUR, TUNISIA, March 20 (Reuters) - Shortly before he and a friend gunned down 20 foreign tourists at Tunisia's Bardo museum, Yassine al-Abidi sat down to a breakfast of olive oil and dates with his family and left for work at his travel agency as usual.
His relatives, mourning his death in a hail of police bullets in the midst of the attack, said they could not understand how a lively, popular young man with a taste for the latest imported clothes could have done such a thing.
They said he was typical of the young men of Tunis' Omrane Superieur suburb. He graduated in French, held down a job and showed no sign of the hardline Islamist ideology that would drive him to commit the worst militant attack in a decade.
But relatives said last year he had begun to spend more and more time at a local mosque, following a pattern of radicialisation of Tunisian young men who then find themselves fighting in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
"I am sad for Yassine, but even sadder for the victims that Yassine killed. They were innocent, why did they have to pay the price of a false understanding of Islam," said his uncle Mohamed Abidi. "They are the victims of terrorism. We are the victims of a demagogic network that wants only death."
Yassine's family had set up a traditional mourning tent outside their home, a well-made orange duplex standing in contrast to the more rundown residences nearby.
Chairs sat empty inside, with only ten family members present. Nearby his mother wept constantly.
Four years after a popular revolt toppled autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has had free elections, a new constitution and compromise politics.
But the new government is also caught up in a low-level war with militants who have taken advantage of the new freedoms.
More than 3,000 Tunisians have left to fight in Syria and Iraq and the government estimates around 500 have since returned, fueling fears of further attacks on Tunisia's fragile new democratic state.

'COULDN'T HURT A BIRD'
Abidi and his fellow gunman were trained at a jihadist camp in Libya before the Bardo attack, the Tunisian government has said. Officials said the two men had been recruited at mosques in Tunisia and traveled to Libya in September.
Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria and is active in Tunisia's chaotic neighbor Libya, praised the two attackers in an audio recording as "knights of the Islamic State" armed with machineguns and bombs.
Family members said Abidi had left home for two months, saying he would be working in the commercial city Sfax on Tunisia's coast. But he did not display any of the conservative beliefs of hardline Islamists, never, for instance, complaining about alcohol being consumed at his uncle's house.
"He was always fun, we danced together at family weddings. He wasn't like hardline Salafists," said his cousin Hanen.
"On the last day he had breakfast of dates and olive oil and went to work. At 10 am he asked for a break and went and did what he did."
Last year, he had started visiting a local mosque where ultraconservative Salafists gave talks on jihad in Syria and Libya, relatives said.
But even when Abidi spent lots of time there, he acted normally with his family, unlike the Islamist hardliners who frown on popular music and entertainment.
"He never told us not to watch television for example," Hanen said.
Since its revolution, Tunisia has seen the emergence of several hardline Islamist groups, including Ansar al-Sharia, which the United States blames for storming its embassy in Tunis in 2012 and lists as a terrorist organization.
In the early days after the revolution, hardline imams took over mosques, profiting from the new freedoms to preach their extremist vision of Islam and encourage young men to leave to fight in foreign wars.
The Tunisian authorities have began taking back control of most of those mosques. But young men are still leaving. Some are students, unemployed and middle class, rather than poor. Some lived in marginalized rural communities, and most were simply taken in by extremist recruiters.
"The son I knew could never do what was done," Abidi's mother Zakia said, weeping. "He could not even harm a bird." (Writing by Patrick Markey; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

It was during July of 2010 when I found myself running and playing with dozens of orphaned children just outside of Port Au Prince. Just six months earlier, Haiti had faced one of the world's most catastrophic earthquakes. I found that one of the children seemed quite fond of me, and I of her. Her name was Gwen, and the other children called her "Baby Gwen." Just two years old, Baby Gwen was the only child at the orphanage who technically was not an orphan. Long before the disaster of January 12^th, Baby Gwen and her mother, Grace, came to the orphanage for reasons other than most: lack of water.


In Haiti, 3.5 million people lack access to safe water. For most families, it is the responsibility of the women and children to find and collect it. Haiti is not unique in this tradition: Women and children from around the world collectively spend 140 million hours walking more than three miles to collect water each day.


When Grace was 12 years old, she contributed to those millions of hours spent collecting water. One day while walking to fill vessels for her family, she fell victim to one of the many dangers women and girls face while making their way to nearby rivers or ponds. Grace was attacked and raped. The result -- Baby Gwen. It was up to Grace, still a child herself, to raise a child of her own, on her own. The orphanage became a safe haven for Grace and her baby.


This young mother's story is difficult to fathom but is, unfortunately, not unique. Worldwide, more than 750 million people lack access to safe water. In my work at Water.org, I am responsible for sharing the stories and successes of our work. I am thankful to have the role as a voice for those 750 million people. I have had the privilege of sharing the stories of lives transformed, saved and improved through access to safe water and sanitation. In each, there is a resounding theme where a woman shares how her life has changed, always starting her story with "Now I can..."


Perhaps if Grace had lived in a home with access to safe water, her life would have been different. Like Atseda from Ethiopia, who now attends school after her village installed a hand pump. Or Harati's daughter, whose in-home tap and toilet have allowed her to help out in her family's snack shop. Or, perhaps most importantly, Grace could have continued to play and enjoy her childhood -- just like Poppy's kids in Bangladesh, who -- thanks to safe water at home -- now enjoy a life Poppy never knew: a life unburdened by the water crisis.


Each of us can help make every day Water Day for families, women and girls like Grace. They deserve to start their story with "Now I can..." and go on to enjoy a life transformed by access to safe water. There are several ways you can help make this possible.


o Join Water.org and Johnson & Johnson on March 22^nd for World Water Day and donate a photo through the Donate a Photo app. Johnson & Johnson will donate $1* for every photo donated to help bring safe water to those who need it most.


I hope you will join us. Together we can make every day Water Day for someone in need.


Follow Water.org on Facebook and Twitter to learn more about the water crisis and contribute to the conversation.

*Johnson & Johnson has curated a list of trusted causes, and you can donate a photo to one cause, once a day. Each cause will appear in the app until it reaches its goal, or the donation period ends. If the goal isn't reached, the cause will still get a minimum donation.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 50 percent of mental health conditions begin by age 14, and 75 percent develop by age 24. Unfortunately, it's a topic that's still swept under the rug.

Whether it's depression, bipolar disorder or anxiety, mental illness doesn't discriminate against age, gender or even celebrity status -- just ask the following famous singers, writers, actors and YouTubers.

The following stars have struggled with mental illness first-hand, proving that you're not alone and that there are brighter days ahead. For some major inspiration, check out their brave words below.

1. J.K. Rowling
The "Harry Potter" creator has openly discussed her past struggles with depression.

"I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never. What's to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that."

From an interview with a student journalist

2. Demi Lovato
Lovato has become an advocate for mental health by being vocal about living with bipolar disorder and handling depression.

"It's my mission to share this with the world and to let them know that there is life on the other side of those dark times that seem so hopeless and helpless. I want to show the world that there is life -- surprising, wonderful and unexpected life after diagnosis."

From her speech at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Annual National Convention

3. Jack Harries
Harries has used his YouTube platform to share with viewers that he wants to end the stigma surrounding mental illness after feeling ashamed and alone because he felt depressed.

"Now, the stigma surrounding mental health isn't surprising -- at all. A mental illness generally suggests that something is wrong with the brain. Our brain is our control center. It's responsible for everything we do, and the idea of something being wrong with the brain generally suggests that we're out of control. And as humans we hate that idea. We hate it so much that we just don't talk about it. We sweep it under the rug and pretend that it's not there. But it is. Mental illnesses are a thing. They're real, and they're very present. And we need to talk about them."

From his video "Let's Talk About Mental Health"

4. Beyoncé
The "Drunk in Love" singer has said in the past that she went through a period of depression after Destiny's Child disbanded and her long-term relationship ended.

"Now that I was famous, I was afraid I'd never find somebody again to love me for me. I was afraid of making new friends. Then one day my mom said, 'Why do you think a person wouldn't love you? Don't you know how smart and sweet and beautiful you are?' That's when I decided I only have two choices: I can give up, or I can go on."

From an interview with Parade Magazine

5. Troian Bellisario
Bellisario stars in "Pretty Little Liars" and has been vocal about having an eating disorder as a teenager.

"[Seventeen Magazine] asked me what I was like when I was 17 and I wasn't going to say, 'I was great!' because I wasn't. I was suffering from a mental disorder. But what I so often find is that it becomes about the facts. 'How much weight did you lose? How were you treated? Were you hospitalized?' And that's not important to me. What is important is to talk about the feelings, to talk about the help that young girls, and young men, who have this problem can get if they find that they are suffering."

From an interview with Larry King

6. Zoe Sugg
Sugg has more than 7 million subscribers on YouTube and has shared with viewers that she deals with panic attacks and anxiety.

"[Anxiety] is a mental illness, and nobody likes to use the word 'mental illness.' But it is. And it's not something that people choose to have. I didn't choose when I was 14 to decide to have panic attacks for nine years and for it to ruin loads of opportunities for me, but that's just what happened. And you can either let it rule your life and let it make you miserable or you can just think, 'No, I don't want to live my life like that anymore.'"

From her video "Dealing with Panic Attacks and Anxiety"

7. John Green
Green is the mind behind "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Paper Towns" and has been open with fans about his experience with anxiety.

"I take medication daily and have for many years. I also try to exercise a lot, because there's some evidence that exercise lessens the symptoms of anxiety, and I try to use the strategies that I've learned in cognitive behavioral therapy to cope with my illness. But it's a chronic illness and it hasn't, like, gone into remission or anything for me. It's something I live with, something that I've integrated into my life. And we all have to integrate stuff into our lives, whether it's mental illness or physical disability or whatever. There is hope. There is treatment. You are not alone, and while I know the struggle feels at times completely hopeless and futile, there is a far shore for the vast majority of people, and I wish you the best."

From his Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), where a fan asked about his depression and anxiety

8. Lilly Singh
In the past, Singh has shared with viewers how she used YouTube to beat her depression.

"I can't say what exactly changed my brain or what caused something in my brain to switch, but all I know is that one morning I woke up and decided I didn't want to be this person anymore. So over the next year, I forced myself to get my life back together. It wasn't easy at all, and I often relapsed back into depression. I eventually learned to talk about my feelings, create healthy relationships and most importantly to love myself."

From her video "Draw My Life"

9. Lady Gaga
The "Born This Way" singer has admitted to struggling with depression after she released her album, "Artpop."

"I learned that my sadness never destroyed what was great about me. You just have to go back to that greatness, find that one little light that's left. I'm lucky I found one little glimmer stored away."

From an interview with Harper's Bazaar

Just as a glass of red wine can make us healthier but ten glasses can result in a terrible hangover (and possibly alcohol poisoning), a little stress can focus our attention and stimulate us to dig within for new ways to grow... but too much is likely to hurt.

It's been estimated by the American Psychological Association that over 80 percent of us suffer from chronic low-grade stress. Chronic or elevated stress burns us out,
and can kill.

People who live near airports and simply deal with the stress of giant airplanes roaring above them have higher rates of cardiac arrest than those who don't. People who deal with a controlling or uncommunicative boss have a 60 percent higher chance of developing coronary heart disease than those who don't. Unmanaged stress, simply from having a sense of disempowerment at work, can be more dangerous than smoking or high cholesterol.

Stress leads to tangible changes inside many the cells of the body. Stress triggers specific genes to express proteins which lead to inflammation; and chronic inflammation is associated with killers such as heart disease and cancer. Over time, stress reduces our ability to prevent ageing, heal wounds, fight infections, and even be successfully immunised. Excess stress also stops us learning new things, and if we aren't learning, we aren't growing.

Whether our stress is due to worry, fear, confusion, over-work, or being overwhelmed, if we let our powerful, biological stress response dominate our everyday lives, we may survive to pass on our genes... but are unlikely to thrive as we do so.

So here are five science-inspired, wisdom-wired 'Thrive Hacks' for banishing stress from your life, taken from my book Switch On: Unleash your Creativity & Thrive with the New Science & Spirit of Breakthrough


1. Breathe, stop (and shake)
When we are stressed, adrenaline gets pumped throughout the body, increasing our heart rate and making us breathe both fast and shallow. According to Harvard Medical School, just a few, easy deep breaths -- ideally from your abdomen not your neck -- will reset the system a little and shift you toward relaxation.

Stress also tends to leave a build up of energy within that keeps us out of balance. A great way to discharge it quickly (so you don't divert this energy into anger or fear) is to shake, exercise or dance it out. If you feel the tell-tale signs of stress building up within, I recommend a 1 minute nano-rave at home or even in the bathroom at work.

2. Get curious
Your upper brain contains, amongst other things, your prefrontal cortex - which plays a major role in attention, motivation and executive thinking. It doesn't work very well when under stress. In fact, we have to wait until we're calm before it can help us approach situations with maximum insight and intelligence.

Curiosity hacks the stress response by engaging our upper brain and prefrontal cortex... shifting us into reflection rather than rumination (which is what we are doing when we toss worries around our mind over and over again). On study has shown that the more curious we are, the better the quality of our attention. So we can create the right conditions for ourselves to be creative and adaptable with the stresses and strains of life by staying curious.

3. Hug it out
Hugging a loved one releases oxytocin, which reins in our stressed-out sympathetic nervous system, and seems to drive the repair of muscles, brain tissue and neurones. The more often we hug, the lower our heart rate and blood pressure tends to be, and so the more resilient we become to stress. Give someone you trust a hug. Hugging strangers can actually create more stress!

4. Get into your body
The insula in our cerebral cortex integrates information from the brain and body together. Advanced meditators, experienced warriors, and top athletes have a highly developed insula. They share a heightened ability to sense what's going on in their bodies and act on it. They can anticipate a change in emotional state, which then helps them stay in peak condition during moments of stress on the battlefield. By getting to know your own body sensations better, you can boost the capacity of your insula to help you navigate through life.

Elite troops and meditators who have increased insula activity also have enhanced vagus nerve tone, which seems to help them perform better under stress. Doctors have been experimenting with stimulating the vagal nerve within the chest to treat depression and increase the speed of healing after paralysis from stroke. Scientists at McGill suggest that you can activate your own vagal nerve and builds its tone through breathing deeply and relaxing.

5. Feel the love
Feelings of love and connection melt away stress. One study has shown that the release of oxytocin (which happens when we feel love) reduces the stress hormones flooding the system of couples that are in conflict. Another study has shown that when feeling romantic love, people think more expansively and less analytically, have a much longer-term outlook, and are more creative. When people are horny and turned on but not actually in love, they think in a more short-term and less creative way!

So take charge of your stress levels by feeling loved and loving. For extra benefits, avoid fighting before bed, which can increase stress and make our sleep worse; and sleep next to your lover. Its been shown to be able to reduce the dangerous chemicals of stress.

SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AP) -- U.S. first lady Michelle Obama traveled Friday from Japan to Cambodia -- a journey from one of Asia's richest countries to one of its poorest -- as part of a campaign to help millions of girls around the world stay in school.

Mrs. Obama arrived in the city of Siem Reap, home to Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple complex, where she planned to sightsee following activities Saturday focused on the U.S.-led education initiative "Let Girls Learn."

The White House has said Mrs. Obama is expected to "share American perspectives about education and good governance" but was unlikely to directly criticize Cambodia's human rights record.

Mrs. Obama's trip is the first by a sitting American first lady to Cambodia, whose strongman leader, Prime Minister Hun Sen, has ruled for 30 years with little tolerance for dissent.

She was not expected to meet Hun Sen but will spend Saturday with his wife, Bun Rany, who greeted Mrs. Obama at the airport Friday night.

The two first ladies are to meet Cambodian high school students participating in community-led programs. Mrs. Obama will also deliver a speech to U.S. Peace Corps volunteers and later hold a round-table discussion with those volunteers and others working on projects to support girls' education in Cambodia.

Earlier this month, she and President Barack Obama launched "Let Girls Learn" to lift barriers that block more than 62 million girls around the world from attending school.

Japan is partnering with the U.S. to promote the campaign and announced during Mrs. Obama's three-day stay it will devote 42 billion yen ($340 million) to girls' education projects.

The U.S. has earmarked $250 million in initial funding for the program, which will be run by the Peace Corps and begin in 11 countries - Cambodia, Albania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Georgia, Ghana, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Togo and Uganda.

The White House said Japan and Cambodia were chosen for Mrs. Obama's trip because one is a donor country and one is a country in need, and it reflects a U.S. commitment to be more involved in the Asia-Pacific region.

In an online travel journal, Mrs. Obama said the trip felt personal. She shared a story, now familiar to Americans, in the hopes of inspiring children overseas.

"This visit is part of a journey that began decades ago, back when I was a little girl," wrote Mrs. Obama, a Harvard-educated lawyer, saying she came from a modest background, but worked hard in school and her education transformed her life. "My education is the starting point for every opportunity in my life."

The trip also allowed the first lady to soak up some of Asia's rich culture. Before leaving Japan on Friday, Mrs. Obama flew from Tokyo to the ancient capital of Kyoto to visit shrines and temples including Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple founded in 780. She also tried her hand at taiko drums after watching a rousing performance by students who drummed, jumped and gesticulated with all their might.

"You guys are good!" she said. "That's good exercise. Wonderful."

The students then invited Mrs. Obama to join them, and performed a number as she and a student drummed on a big, round taiko drum.

In Cambodia, she will get a first-hand look at the country's educational challenges.

Cambodia was devastated by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. The brutal regime closed schools and executed intellectuals. Foreign aid and investment have helped the economy grow rapidly in the past decade but its education system and overall development remain stunted.

Even today, most Cambodian children drop out of school, according to 2014 government statistics that show 95 percent of children enter primary school but only 20 percent finish secondary school.

Poverty is the main problem, especially in rural areas, where children are pulled out of school to help support their families, according to UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency.

Cambodia's problems with child prostitution, child labor and human trafficking also play a role, and often target girls.

In 2012, President Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Cambodia and held a private meeting with Hun Sen that White House officials described as tense. The president privately pressed Hun Sen on a variety of human rights and political issues but made no public comments critical of his host.

Human rights groups hope Mrs. Obama will speak out publicly.

"While it's welcome that Michelle Obama is taking up the important cause of educating girls, she also needs to recognize that Cambodia is a human rights basket case," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. He urged her to "speak up about rampant violence against women, impunity of security forces and failure of democratic governance."

Detroit will not shut off water to residents this season until officials review ideas to improve assistance for people who can't pay their bills. It's a shift in direction for the water department, which was accused of violating human rights last year for shutting off service to thousands of low-income residents.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which delays shutoffs during the coldest months, is now moving to enact them for delinquent customers. But until the evaluation of the assistance program is completed, residential shutoffs -- currently a risk for more than 25,000 people -- will not be pursued, DWSD and Great Lakes Water Authority spokesman Bill Nowling told The Huffington Post. The department is currently shutting water off for commercial customers only, a seeming 180-degree turn from the department's priorities last year.

"We want to come up with a plan that keeps customers current, not one that tells them their water is going to be shut off," Nowling told The Huffington Post. "We need to make it easier for people to pay and easier to get assistance."

In 2014, three United Nations experts who visited Detroit concluded the city was violating residents' human right to drinking water. Local groups protested the more than 33,000 shutoffs that occured and started a service to match residents who need help with water bills to individual donors. The Detroit Water Brigade provided bottled water and no-questions-asked donations so residents could get on payment plans.

DWSD's current assistance program provides payment plans, and a $2 million fund was set up last year to pay a portion of the outstanding bills for qualifying residents. Fewer people have taken advantage of the program than the city believes need it, with 25,000 customers enrolled in payment plans. There are 1,800 customers receiving assistance from the fund, and over 1,500 more that still processing.

Nowling said the department is considering ways to make the program more effective, like holding information sessions in community venues and potentially offering fixed rates for low-income customers.

Part of the reason reforms are necessary is that the department hadn't looked critically at how it operates in a long time; it wasn't until last summer that DWSD was required to deliver warnings to properties facing shutoffs. Shutting off water was the standard method the department used to compel residents to pay up, but it's not necessarily the best tool to collect revenue.

Nowling said officials have looked to other utilities' practices for guidance. They learned from Detroit power utility DTE Energy that a more considerate approach could actually be more profitable; 80 percent of customers are likely to pay their bills if they get on payment plans, they found, while only 50 percent will do the same if service is shut off.

DTE sends payment plan applications to customers who are at risk of delinquency, Nowling said, while the water department waits for customers to come to them.

"They're more proactive about getting someone into that pipeline for help, and that's the goal here," he said. It's yet another shift from the department's previous attitude, highlighted in a DWSD spokeswoman's comment to the Associated Press in June that put the onus on struggling customers to be "proactive."

Last year's shutoffs occurred at a much higher rate than usual as the city went through bankruptcy proceedings and tried to squeeze revenue from every possible source. Previously, Nowling said, the water department had not done a good job of collecting. "To suddenly turn that on its ear and say, 'Now were going to have zero tolerance for delinquency,' I think everyone realized that wasn't the best plan."

Residential shutoffs will still occur once the assistance program review is completed, Nowling said. There is no set timeline for when that will happen, but DWSD is preparing to start posting hundreds of shutoff notices daily as early as mid-April, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Detroit Water Brigade spokesman Justin Wedes commended the city for halting shutoffs and trying to expand its programs to help low-income residents. But he told HuffPost that payment assistance is a "stopgap measure if affordability isn't resolved." The city raised water rates last year and is slated to do so again.

"I think that this crisis has really given metro Detroiters and Americans pause to think about the crisis of poverty," Weden said. "The notion that in order to have water -- or to have a home, or light, or gas or heat -- you must have a job is quite backwards, because you need all those things to work in the first place.

"In order to have a functioning working city we must first have a functioning, working water system," he added.

I spent many years in and out of depression, and while I felt very much alone at the time, I know now that I was not. Millions of people battle the dark depths of depression every day. Like many others, I kept most of my painful thoughts and feelings to myself. When I finally got desperate enough to reach out for professional help, it took a long time for me to actually believe and integrate the guidance that I was given.

Here are some key truths I have come to believe. If you are struggling with depression, I hope you will too.

1. Don't believe everything you think.
We all have our share of losses and challenges in life. But the main cause of depression is not usually our life circumstances. It is our thinking. Unfortunately, when we are depressed, we tend to believe our thoughts. And the mind of a depressed person is not usually the best place to hang out. When I was battling depression, I wholeheartedly believed every thought that popped up on the screen of my mind. My thoughts seemed and felt so true. I even gathered evidence to support them and ignored evidence to the contrary. For example, when I was single and feeling lonely, I only saw couples out in the world. My mind refused to take in that there were millions of single people around me as well. Not to mention millions of unhappy couples. If I was struggling with a recent weight gain, I only saw thin, confident looking women. My mind refused to see anyone else. It was as if my depressed self was on trial and my mind was the prosecuting attorney gathering evidence that I was not okay and that everyone else was. Eventually, after lots of help from others and a good dose of willingness from within, I learned that I could take a stand against my internal programs. I learned that I could disagree with my discouraging thoughts and eventually dispel them for good. You can too!

2. Do the opposite of what the "voice of depression" suggests.
As a psychotherapist, I often find myself encouraging people to follow their hearts, listen to their true feelings, and go with their intuition... unless they are depressed. That's because when we are lost in depression, we are not in the best position to make wise decisions regarding self-care. My "voice of depression" used to convince me to isolate, veg out all day, oversleep, binge, starve, get high or give up. I had to learn to do the opposite of what that internal voice was telling me to do. I had to learn that when I was depressed and thought I should isolate, I should do exactly the opposite and reach out to a friend or attend a support group. When the voice of depression told me to watch TV all day, I had to push myself to take a walk or listen to a self-help cassette tape (remember those?) When my mind told me not to eat breakfast because I wanted to lose weight or because I had no appetite, I needed to do the opposite and eat a nutritious meal anyway or I was going to set myself up for yet another binge followed by even deeper depression.

Unfortunately, depression zaps the energy we need to do the very things that will make us feel less depressed. Learning to do the opposite of what your voice of depression suggests will help you begin to climb out of its painful and familiar grip.

3. Don't open virus-infested links.
We don't usually have a choice about what thoughts pop up in our minds. But we do have a choice about whether or not to open those "virus-infested links" containing the same old self-sabotaging thoughts. Rather than allow our thoughts to infect our whole system, we can choose to only download ideas we know to be safe and user-friendly. So if you know that your "unkind mind" is operating, you can choose to close it and only open up what you know are safe programs. If you know that a certain link will tell you "I am a loser," decide to download the "This is what's okay about me" message instead. Instead of opening the "My life sucks" link, you can choose the "These are some things that are good about my life" podcast. Avoid the virus that says, "Everyone has a better life than me" and download "Here are some things I'm grateful for." With willingness and practice, you can prevent yourself from getting an emotional virus.

4. Upgrade your mantras.
Whether or not you consider yourself to be a spiritual person or believe in the concept of mantras, we are all constantly repeating internal messages to ourselves. Our minds are mantra machines, and whether our messages are kind, neutral, unkind or abusive, they make an enormous difference in the quality of our lives. I used to have a mantra that went something like this: I'm too weak to handle life. I'm not cut out for this. Things are never going to get better. Not exactly an Oprah pick-me-up! I had heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy that if you tell a child they are stupid long enough, they will begin to believe it and act that way. But here I was self-fulfilling my own prophecies. I had to begin to pry my gripped fingers off of my internal whip and set it down. I had to practice some new mantras that were kinder and as it turned out, more true.

My upgraded mantras sound more along the lines of this: I can handle what happens. Everyone has struggles. I am safe in this moment. I can do things to improve my life. I am worthy. We are all the same on some level. I learned that even if I didn't believe them at first, it was an upgrade in the system and I had to start somewhere. Plus, the people that told me to speak to myself with more kindness swore that it would eventually make a difference and I knew where they lived if it turned out they were wrong! They were not wrong.

5. You are not alone.
I remember the first time I asked someone if they ever thought about suicide and they said they hadn't. I was floored. "Never?" I asked. "Not even once?" It simply never even occurred to me that everyone wasn't battling those dark thoughts; that everyone wasn't as sensitive as I was, and that everyone wasn't deciding whether or not to stick around and choose life. But it's true. We are all different breeds and some of us are more sensitive and thought-filled than others. Yes, we all face hard times and we all -- regardless of fame, fortune or physique -- will face losses. But some of us have a darker internal experience than others. It's important to find people who really understand and can handle your pain and your dark thoughts, people you feel totally safe with.

I also remember the first time I confided in a friend that I was suicidal. She was completely silent. I'm talkin' not one word. Poor thing. I know now she had zero skills to deal with such intense information and we were pretty young at the time but it left me feeling even more alone and despairing. It would be years before I would risk sharing my dark secret again; however, the next time, I chose a professional who really got me and really knew how to respond. Boy did I feel the difference! It's so important to seek out loving, compassionate, non-judgmental people until you can be that way toward yourself. If you are looking for a therapist, consider someone who has Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) skills as well as Mindfulness Training. CBT will help you learn to challenge and change your thinking and mindfulness will help you learn to live without becoming lost in your thoughts.

6. Something needs to die, but not you!
Being a sensitive person in a demanding and often perfectionistic world is not easy. I spent years thinking I just wasn't cut out for this life. My go-to thought when things felt overwhelming was "I'm outta here." It's hard for me to believe that now because I'm so committed to seeing this life through. I've learned that difficult feelings pass and that not every thought needs to be camped out on. But back in my dark decades, I truly wanted out. A lot. Sometimes my way out was through addictions and sometimes it was truly wanting out.

What I know now -- and I hope, if you are in the grips of depression, that you will know too -- is this: If your mind is telling you that you need to die, it might mean that something does indeed need to die, but not you! Your perfectionism might need to die. Self-hate might need to die. The belief that you can't handle life might need to die. The thought that everyone else has a charmed life might need to die. The thought that you are alone and that nobody cares might need to die. But not you. Underneath the habitual unkind mind is a quiet, loving heart with passions, ideas and dreams. Once you let go of your self-negating thoughts, all those other parts of you can be tapped into and lived to their fullest.

7. One chapter is not the whole book.
When you are struggling with depression, it is so tempting to think that this is the way it will always be. But life takes different twists and turns, and we don't get to know what the next chapter in our life will bring if we give up on ourselves. One client spent years comparing herself to her seemingly happily married friends and felt desperately lonely. Despite my weekly reminders that life stories can change, she was convinced that hers would not. But her story did change. She is now married and enjoying her new chapter in life. Additionally, a few of her previously "perfect and happy" friends are now divorced. I'm not one to say I told you so. I am just one to say that things can change. We all experience sad, challenging chapters in our lives, just as we all experience change. Regardless of whether or not our outside circumstances drastically shift, if our minds change, everything can change. This is why some people have what is seemingly a dreary job and swear that they are the happiest people on the planet, while others have literal fame and fortune and yet struggle with addictions and depression or even take their own lives.

So if you are battle weary from depression, try challenging your next dark thought. Try doing the opposite of what your voice of depression suggests. Upgrade your daily mantra to something kinder and more grateful. Allow a harmful thought pattern to die. Try reaching out to someone who really understands you... and see how the next chapter unfolds!

In spite of their differences, introverts and extroverts make great romantic partners. Perhaps it's a case of opposites attracting -- what one partner lacks, the other more than makes up for. They balance each other out.

"Extroverts report that introverts give them permission to explore their serious, introspective sides," Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, wrote in a guest blog for eHarmony. "Introverts, on the other hand, often feel grateful that their extroverted partners make the atmosphere light-hearted and casual -– and that they do so much of the talking."

It's important to note that "introverted" and "extroverted" are not just synonyms for "shy" and "outgoing" -- there are outgoing introverts and shy extroverts. The main difference between these two temperaments comes down to how energy is gained. Introverts gain energy and recharge by spending time alone, while extroverts gain energy by surrounding themselves with others.

Below, we asked authors, psychologists, relationship writers and real-life couples to share the common situations that arise when an introvert marries an extrovert.

1. You'd prefer to sit and think after a fight, while your spouse wants to resolve things right away.

Innies and outies, as they are sometimes called, have different ways of responding to conflict. Introverts need time to quietly process, while extroverts often prefer to think out loud and want to tackle the issue head on as soon as possible.

"My husband wants to talk it out because extroverts process that way," author Betsy Talbot told The Huffington Post. "I want to think about it and have the talk when I've got my thoughts together. It completely throws me to think out loud, and it completely throws him to not be able to bounce ideas off of me. We've since learned to argue in a more productive way, but those first few years were a doozy."

2. You rely on your spouse to rescue you from drawn-out conversations at parties.

It's like you have a sign on your back that says, "Tell me all about it!" Somehow you always end up cornered at a party by a stranger with a lot to say. Fortunately, your extroverted spouse has no problem intervening.

"Introverts are excellent listeners and not big minglers, so at parties, we're sitting ducks for chatterboxes," Sophia Dembling, author of Introverts in Love: The Quiet Way to Happily Ever After, told HuffPost Weddings. "And while extroverts have a talent for flitting from person to person at a party, introverts are not always good at extricating ourselves from conversations that have gone on too long."

3. And on occasion, you take separate cars to parties so you can duck out early and your spouse can keep socializing.

Introverts find small talk draining, while extroverts excel at making breezy conversation with strangers and acquaintances alike.

"The effort it takes to be a social butterfly means that my introverted wife hits her tired limit faster than I do," Harris O'Malley, the man behind the blog Paging Dr. NerdLove, said. "Occasionally this means that I have to call it a night as well. Other times we take separate cars so that she can head home and I can hang around until I'm ready."

4. You view alone time as rejuvenating, but your spouse finds it mind-numbingly boring.

"When not at work, my wife and I spend most every minute together and we both enjoy it," self-proclaimed introvert Darcy Johnston said. "But when it comes time where I want to do my own thing like play video games or watch one of my movies, her response is always, 'Well what am I going to do?' Without the human interaction she gets frustrated, she finds it boring. I have to find something for her to do. And even then she'll text me, 'How long till you're done?'"

Sometimes, extroverts take it personally when their introverted partners seek out solitude -- but they shouldn't. "We don't do activities alone because we are sad or negative or depressed," HuffPost blogger Kate Bartolotta wrote in a post. "We do it because that's what fills our cup back up. We'll be even happier to see you when we come back."

5. You're amazed at how easily your spouse meets new people, while you tend to keep to your smaller circle of close friends.

Extroverts are constantly making new friends -- in line at Starbucks, at the post office, just walking down the street. In other words, anywhere. Introverts, on the other hand, are sometimes described as "slow to warm up" and require more time to establish a real connection with another person.

"We now live in a small village in Spain, and Warren immediately began making friends and practicing his Spanish," Talbot said. "He talks to everyone, and it takes an hour to go to the small market even though it is only 500 feet from our door. It took a lot longer for people to remember me as anything other than 'wife of Warren' because I'm not nearly as extroverted."

6. You prefer peace and quiet after a long day of work, while your spouse wants to chat about his or her day.

"My wife is the introvert but she actually has a forward-facing, customer-service intensive job that requires her to talk with dozens of people every day," O'Malley said. "I, on the other hand, am an extrovert but also a writer, which means I spend the bulk of my day alone in front of my computer. By the time she gets off work, she's exhausted from having to socialize, while I'm craving human contact."

7. You have different ideas of what the perfect date night looks like.

More often than not, the introvert may prefer a quiet night in, snuggled up on the couch watching Netflix versus, say, a crowded bar. But even when he or she feels up to going out, the introvert's preferences may not align with those of the extroverted partner.

"Introverts, who are more sensitive to external stimulation, are always ready to dial down the lights and action -- think dark movie theatre or quiet restaurant," clinical psychologist Dr. Laurie Helgoe, author of Introvert Power, said. "And extroverts, who are wired to seek external rewards, want to ramp it up at a casino or happy hour."

8. You go out of your way to avoid activities that involve audience participation, while your spouse seeks them out.

"My wife and I love going to comedy shows, but the moments leading up to the comedy show are terrifying for me," introvert and relationship writer Cody Mullins said. "My wife loves sitting up at the front where there's a good chance the comedian will pull us into his shows, which is pretty much a personal nightmare of mine. The minutes leading up to the show are usually filled with panicked arguments (the panic all coming from me) on where we should sit. I always demand the furthest back corner where our involuntary participation is pretty much guaranteed to not happen. And then if it does, I have an easy escape route right out the back doors."

9. Conversations between the two of you can be one-sided at times, and that's OK.

Introverts tend to listen more than they speak and ask good questions, which works out well because it gives the extroverted spouse more room to talk.

"I personally think about everything I am going to say before I say it -- I want to make sure it makes sense and represents what I want to say," Johnston told The Huffington Post. "My wife mostly has no filter and just says what's on her mind...I don't enjoy forcing or having to carry a conversation. She loves to talk and needs someone to listen to her, so this setup is mutually beneficial. I help her by being her listening buddy, and she helps by taking the pressure of conversation away."