US first lady urges Cambodian students to seek more freedoms

SIEM REAP, Cambodia — U.S. first lady Michelle Obama is calling on Cambodian students to stay in school and take advantage of their education to demand greater freedoms in their Southeast Asian country.

Cambodia has been ruled for 30 years by strongman Hun Sen, the prime minister, whose wife Bun Rany joined Mrs. Obama on her visit Saturday to the northern city of Siem Reap.

Mrs. Obama is on a five-day trip to Asia to promote the U.S.-led education initiative, "Let Girls Learn," which she and the president announced earlier this month.

The community-based program, to be run by the Peace Corps, is meant to help get 62 million girls around the developing world back into classrooms.