Miguel Schincariol / AFP - Getty Images

A vandalized press car from TV Record burns during a student demonstration in front of the City Hall in Sao Paulo, Brazil on June 18.

Mauricio Lima / Redux Pictures

Protesters take part in a demonstration organized by the Free Fare Movement outside the governor's palace in Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 18.

Daniel Guimaraens / AFP - Getty Images

Riot police take positions during a protest in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 18.

By Todd Benson, Reuters

 SAO PAULO - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday sought to defuse a massive protest movement sweeping the country, acknowledging the need for better public services and more responsive governance at all levels.

 Speaking the morning after an estimated 200,000 Brazilians marched in more than a half-dozen cities nationwide, Rousseff said her government remains committed to social change and is listening attentively to the many grievances expressed at the demonstrations.

 "Brazil woke up stronger today," Rousseff said in a televised speech in Brasilia. "The size of yesterday's demonstrations shows the energy of our democracy, the strength of the voice of the streets and the civility of our population." Read the full story.

Nelson Antoine / AP

Protestors destroy ATM machines at a local bank in Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 18.

Sebastiao Moreira / EPA

Brazilians protesters attempt to enter the Sao Paulo City Hall during a demonstration against high public transportation costs and the billions of dollars spent on the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, at the City Hall in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 18.

Nelson Almeida / AFP - Getty Images

A municipal worker sweeps the streets by two cars destroyed the previous night by demonstrators in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 18. Rio police fired tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes with protesting youths early Tuesday, after tens of thousands rallied in major Brazilian cities against the huge costs of hosting the 2014 World Cup.

Nelson Almeida / AFP - Getty Images

Furniture vandalized by demonstrators rests in the lobby of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (ALERJ), in downtown Rio de Janeiro, on June 18.

Victor R. Caivano / AP

A protester looks at vandalized cash machines at a bank during a demonstration in Rio de Janeiro, on June 17. Thousands took to the streets in largely peaceful protests in at least eight cities in Brazil on June 17, demonstrations that voiced the deep frustrations Brazilians feel about carrying heavy tax burdens but receiving woeful returns in public education, health, security and transportation. Officers in Rio fired tear gas and rubber bullets when a group of protesters invaded the state legislative assembly and later vandalized and looted properties in the area.

Alex Almeida / Reuters

Demonstrators shout anti-government slogans behind a banner, which translates as "violence," in Sao Paulo on June 17.

Victor R. Caivano / AP

A military police officer pepper-sprays a protester during a demonstration in Rio de Janeiro, on June 17.

Nelson Antoine / AP

A demonstrator waves a Brazilian flag during a protest in Sao Paulo, on June 17.

Felipe Dana / AP

Protesters are reflected on the glass of a building, left, as they march in Rio de Janeiro, on June 17. Protests in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities, set off by a 10-cent hike in public transport fares, have clearly moved beyond that issue to tap into widespread frustration in Brazil about a heavy tax burden, politicians widely viewed as corrupt and woeful public education, health and transport systems and come as the nation hosts the Confederations Cup soccer tournament and prepares for next month's papal visit.

Vassil Donev / EPA

Erdem Gunduz, center, stands on Taksim Square during a protest that was quickly dubbed "duranadam" or "standing man", in Istanbul, Turkey, early on June 18, 2013. Gunduz was briefly searched and questioned by police, media reports said.

A Turkish man has staged an eight-hour silent vigil on Istanbul's Taksim Square, scene of violent clashes between police and anti-government protesters in recent weeks, inspiring hundreds of others to follow his lead.

Erdem Gunduz said he wanted to take a stand against police stopping demonstrations near the square, Dogan news agency reported.

He stood silently, facing the Ataturk Cultural Center, which was draped in Turkish flags and a portrait of Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, from 6 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) on Monday.

Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images

Erdem Gunduz stood for several hours unnoticed before his presence on the flashpoint square went viral on the social network Twitter. He was then joined by hundreds of others. Turkish police intervened, clearing the square and arresting several demonstrators.

By 2 a.m. (7 p.m. ET), when the police moved in, about 300 people had joined him. Ten people who refused to be moved on by police were detained.

Gunduz, swiftly dubbed "Standing Man" on social media in Turkey, inspired similar protests elsewhere in Istanbul as well as in the capital Ankara and the city of Izmir on the Aegean coast. Read the full story.

Related: Woman in red sprayed with teargas becomes symbol of Turkey protests

Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images

A man emulating Erdem Gunduz by standing on Taksim Square is arrested by police on June 18, 2013.

Sedat Suna / EPA

By Tuesday morning, others had begun to mimic Gunduz' protest in Taksim Square.

Sedat Suna / EPA

A protester stands on Taksim Square on June 18, 2013.

Sedat Suna / EPA

A protester reads a book (Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis") during a 'duranadam' protest in Istanbul on June 18, 2013.

Sedat Suna / EPA

Protesters stand on Taksim Square during a 'duranadam' protest on June 18, 2013.

Slideshow: Anger in Turkey

/

Protests that started as an outcry against a local development project in Taksim Square have snowballed into widespread anger against what critics say is the government's increasingly conservative and authoritarian agenda.

Launch slideshow

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A man walks his dog past a vacant store, with graphics pasted to the outside to make it look like a working butcher's shop -- down to a fake open door --in the village of Belcoo, Northern Ireland.The upcoming G-8 summit will be held at a nearby golf resort. Local councils in Northern Ireland have painted fake shop fronts and covered derelict buildings with huge billboards to hide the economic hardship being felt in towns and villages near the golf resort where world leaders will meet.

The Northern Ireland border village of Belcoo has never looked so good. And critics say that's just the problem.

Organizers of the Group of Eight summit of world leaders in Northern Ireland June 17-18 have spent weeks sprucing up the facades of businesses all around the County Fermanagh venue. Their use of window-sized posters on two derelict Belcoo shops, to make them appear like thriving businesses with fully stocked shelves, has proved most eye-catching — indeed, eye-fooling.

While many in the border village of barely 500 residents and two pubs applaud the novel use of posters to give their home a cheerier look, some complain they've covered up the reality of economic hard times.

To passing motorists, the former Flanagan's butcher's shop in Belcoo looks packed to the rafters with fresh cuts of meat. Its locked door even has a poster on it, depicting an open door so convincing that would-be shoppers have nearly strolled into the wall.

In reality Belcoo, which lies directly on the Republic of Ireland border and about 10 miles south of the luxury golf resort hosting the G8 summit, has been hard hit by the staggering collapse of Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy. Read the full story.

Peter Morrison / AP

Women walk past a derelict shop, its windows covered in giant posters to make it look like an inviting cheese shop, in Fivemiletown, a village on the road to Enniskillen, the site of the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

Security fencing covered with scenic pictures of County Fermanagh surrounds an unfinished building site in the village of Irvinestown, June 3, 2013.

Peter Morrison / AP

A woman walks past a derelict shop, its windows covered in giant posters to make it look like a cafe, in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland on June 6, 2013.

Peter Muhly / AFP - Getty Images

A derelict caravan is seen on June 14 with the letters 'G8 H Quarters' written on it in a field near the Lough Erne Golf Resort, where the G-8 summit will be held.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

Waste ground is hidden by a protective screen printed with scenic views of Fermanagh, near the Lough Erne Golf Resort on June 10, 2013.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A girl runs past anti-G-8 posters stuck to a wall along the Falls Road in West Belfast on June 14, 2013.

Peter Morrison / AP

A member of ground staff paints a sign on the 18th tee box at Lough Erne Golf Resort on June 6, 2013. The resort is due to host the G-8 summit on June 17-18.

Related:

Northern Ireland's famed murals take a more peaceful tone

Ghost towns tell the story of Ireland's faded dream

Tasso Marcelo / AFP - Getty Images

Two demonstrators hug each other tightly as they are surrounded by riot police using tear gas during a student protest in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Brazil's two biggest cities to protest 10-cent hikes in bus and subway fares.

-- Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press

Nicolas Tanner / AP

People protest the increase in bus and subway fares in Rio de Janeiro on June 13, 2013.

Nelson Antoine / AP

Police fire rubber bullets at demonstrators protesting a price increase for public transportation in Sao Paulo on June 13, 2013.

Previously on PhotoBlog: Amorous protesters, lost in the heat of Vancouver riots

Unification Ministry / Reuters

A South Korean official shakes hands with Kim Song-hye, a senior official of North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea and head of a North Korean delegation for an inter-Korean working-level talks.

North and South Korea inched closer to resetting their strained relations Sunday as delegations met face-to-face to lay the foundation for the first cabinet-level talks in six years.

The meeting at the “Truce Village” of Panmunjom in the Korean Demilitarized Zone — so-called because the armistice that brought the 1950-53 Korean War to a close was signed there — signaled that the two countries may be prepared to move beyond months of mutual mistrust.

Officials reportedly reviewed logistics for two days of high-level talks between cabinet ministers scheduled to begin Wednesday in Seoul, according to The Associated Press. Senior government officials have not sat down for a meeting since 2007.

This week’s talks are expected to center on reopening a jointly run factory shut down this spring after the North closed the border and pulled out 53,000 of its workers during a particularly icy period in intergovernmental relations.

Any evidence of friendliness between the Koreas marks a significant counterpoint to recent tensions.

Over the last few months, the North has threatened preemptive nuclear strikes in the Asia-Pacific region and the U.S., raising the ire of officials in the West and alienating their neighbor to the south. Nuclear disarmament is not expected to appear on the agenda at Wednesday’s talks, according to the AP.

Prior to Sunday’s meeting, the South expressed enthusiasm about the potential for reconciliation.

“The development of South and North Korean relations starts form little things and gradual trust-building,” a South Korean delegate, Unification Policy Officer Chun Hae-sung, said before the meeting began, according to the AP.

The first round of dialogue between the Koreas comes on the heels of a closely-watched summit attended by President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in which both leaders agreed that North Korea’s nuclear program poses a significant threat to the international community.

Security analysts have speculated that Pyongyang’s interest in closer ties with the South may stem from pressure from Beijing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• Obama, Chinese president talk North Korea, cybersecurity at summit
• Hopeful sign? North, South Korea agree to talks over joint Kaesong factory zone 

This story was originally published on Sun Jun 9, 2013 12:52 PM EDT

Charles Emir Richards via Facebook

Part-time photographer Charles Emir Richards posted this and dozens of other photos from protests in Besiktas on June 2 on his Facebook page, with the message, "You don't need my permission to share the photos. I think it is especially important that people outside of Turkey share them to let it be known what is going on here."

Charles Emir Richards via Facebook

Taksim, Istanbul on June 4

Charles Emir Richards via Facebook

Besiktas, Istanbul on June 2

Charles Emir Richards, an American living in Turkey, took to the streets of Taksim and Besiktas in Istanbul on June 1-4 not to join protesters, but to document the events between demonstrators and police in what he describes as a "war zone." The images in this blog post come from Richards’ Facebook page and are used with permission. NBC News’s Director of Photography, Jim Collins, contacted Richards via email to collect first-person reaction to his photos and the events that are occurring in his backyard.

Do you live in Istanbul full-time and is the area where you’ve been shooting near to where you live?
Yes, I do. I am half-Turkish and have been living here on and off for the past 15 years. Taksim is about a kilometer southeast from where I live. Akaretler, Besiktas a little less than a kilometer northeast. I am at a vortex of a triangle.

Are you a photographer?
I am a part-time photographer. It is my hobby gone crazy. I started shooting celebrity portraits for Rolling Stone over here and then, more recently, for Vogue and GQ. I don't take photographs as much as I should. Shooting the protests here for the past few days has convinced me that I was just wasting time, eating cake.

Would you consider yourself a protester?
 I wish I was brave enough to be a protester, but I am not. I agree with what they are fighting for and felt it was important to document it.

Are you concerned that the disturbances may threaten your home, property or safety in general?
Right now it is impossible to say what is going to happen. The prime minister is not bending, nor are the protesters. Everyone is meeting again in Gezi Park tonight (Editor's note: Friday). If (Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan had made even minor concessions I think a lot of people were ready to declare a victory for democracy, and go home. Now I don't know, I think the weekend will tell what direction things will take.

One thing I can say is that the protesters, even the most violent, have been extremely careful not to harm anyone's personal property. At any point they could have blocked the roads with private citizen's cars and burned them to block the police. They did not, and they did not entertain the idea of raiding or looting. If a store owner wanted to open shop and help they appreciated it, if not, fine.

Charles Emir Richards via Facebook

Taksim, Istanbul on June 4

For my personal safety, I have very practical concerns, the top of the list being hyperventilating in my gas mask and it fogging up. Not seeing anything during a police raid is the worst thing I can imagine right now. I have been detained by the police twice already. I got shot twice by projectile gas canisters, which brought tears to my eyes, but is actually OK because adrenaline doesn't let you feel more than a sting until hours later. One girl I talked to (said) she was hit by a plastic bullet, and that it hurts so much that you can't move. I find that both very disturbing and threatening.

Charles Emir Richards via Facebook

Charles Emir Richards posted this image on his Facebook page on June 3 with the following comment: "The police brutally beat this man with a baton and shield. I don't know what happened to him as I was detained and released by the police soon after I took this photograph. Akaretler was a war zone tonight."

What are the latest developments that you see on the streets there? Are the protests intensifying?
Last night, the crowd was ready to greet the prime minister with a wave of hostility on his flight back from Tunisia. People were really keyed up where I was last night. There were professional protesters in the crowd from Palestine handing out double-sided photocopies of safety guidelines for gas attacks by the barricades. Everyone was on the lookout for police provocateurs in the crowd.

The people at the barricades are growing in numbers and they are ready to fight. Inside Gezi Park, people are even more determined to continue peaceful protest.

Charles Emir Richards via Facebook

Charles Emir Richards posted this photo from Taskim, Istanbul on June 4 with the following comment: "The sad thing is that the evening started like this."

There were reports of massive police movement all last night and rumors that police reinforcements were being bused in from other cities. Despite this, I never saw a single officer the entire night.

What have you been doing with your photographs besides posting them to Facebook?
Nothing. I have been posting them on Facebook as it has been the only means to get the word out about what is going on here recently. The news media here went blank on the issue, that's when I thought I should go out and shoot and post on Facebook, I felt that a document should get out from somewhere, anywhere. Until yesterday, the local media pretended that nothing was going on. On June 2, when everyone was on the streets engaging the police, CNN Turk was broadcasting a documentary about penguins.

People went and protested in front of media buildings and pasted money on their walls and doors saying if you love money that much here it is, now do your jobs. Even after that they are reporting a very light version of the protests.

Editor's Note: This interview has been edited and condensed.

Charles Emir Richards via Facebook

Besiktas, Istanbul on June 1

Press service of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service for the Republic of Komi via AP

Guards patrolling a prison colony in Russia's north saw a cat scaling the fence and noticed something a little fishy, The Associated Press reports.

On closer inspection, they found several cellphones and chargers taped to the animal's belly.

The feline's clandestine mission took place at Penal Colony No. 1 in Komi province, some 600 miles northeast of Moscow.

But was it a copycat crime? Last December, a Brazilian kitty was caught delivering contraband to inmates at a Brazilian prison.

The fate of the Russian cat is unknown, according to The Moscow Times.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Photo taken on May 31, 2013 and made available to NBC News today.

Peter Kneffel / EPA

An aerial view shows areas of land flooded around Kolbermoor, Germany on June 3.

Matthias Schrader / AP

Members of the red cross make their way by boats in the flooded street in the center of Passau, southern Germany, June 3.

Jens Schlueter / Getty Images

Firefighter Robby Klaus drives by a rescue boat in the flooded center on June 3 in Grimma, Germany. Heavy rains are pounding southern and eastern Germany, causing wide-spread flooding and ruining crops.

Jens Schlueter / Getty Images

Helpers evacuate a woman in the flooded center of Grimma, Germany on June 3.

Kerstin Joensson / AP

A person looks at the heavily damaged road between Lofer and Waidring in the Austrian province of Tyrol on June 3.

Germany, Austria, Poland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic have been affected by floodwaters from heavy rains with officials in the Czech capital, Prague, closing the subway system, evacuating thousands of homes and warning other people not to come into the city.

"We can already speak of the worst flooding in the past 20 to 30 years," Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said after meeting with a crisis management team. Read more.

Juergen Feichter / EPA

A helper takes a rest during cleanup efforts at the solarium of a hotel in Schuettdorf, Austria, June 3.

Photographer Rodrigo Abd works for the Associated Press based out of Lima, Peru. He recently won a 2013 Pulitzer Prize as part of AP's team coverage of the conflict in Syria. In February, he documented Chile's Mapuche Indian community as they battle over land rights issues with the government.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Gerardo Purran Heiquillan, 20, poses for a portrait as he rests from dancing at a "Guillatun," a spiritual ceremony to ask for the well-being of the clan and strengthen ties in the Collico community in Ercilla, Chile, on Feb. 17. In the past five years, reported acts of violence from the Mapuche land struggle have escalated 10 times over, prompting a police response that the indigenous group say has been heavy handed and abusive.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Mapuche Indian men rest after dancing during a "Guillatum," a spiritual ceremony to ask for the well-being of the clan and strengthen ties in the Temucuicui Autonomous community in Ercilla, Chile, on Feb. 10.

The hooded men approached the ranch by night, scattering pamphlets about the death of a Mapuche Indian activist shot in the back by a policeman.

The property belonged to an elderly couple who had lived most of their lives on this wild land surrounded by soaring mountains and rich, primeval forests. For the trespassers, the couple were only the latest in a long line of enemies usurping their ancestral territory.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Sandra Millacheo, 18, center, and her sister Elsa Millacheo, 22, are released by a judge after being arrested during confrontations with police and held for one day in Collipulli, Chile, on Feb. 13. The women were arrested along with 17 others after clashing with police outside a court where Fernando Millacheo, a member of the Mapuche indigenous community, was to appear for a hearing on robbery, arson and attempted murder charges.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Mapuche Indian youths holding a flag are reflected in a door behind which a police officer stands guard during a hearing for Juan Ciriaco Millacheo, an Indian leader who was detained in Neuquen, Argentina for his alleged involvement in a 2001 forest fire, in Collipulli, Chile, on Feb, 9.

When the men tried to break in, Werner Luchsinger, 75, shot one of the trespassers in the neck. His wife, Vivian Mackay, 69, desperately telephoned her son for help, as the attackers torched the house. The couple died in the flames.

That deadly arson was a breaking point in some of the most violent months in recent memory in southern Chile's Araucania region. Over the past five years, reported acts of violence from the Mapuche struggle have escalated 10 times over, prompting a police response that the indigenous group says has been heavy-handed and abusive.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Part of a forest is burned after a forest fire started by Mapuche radical groups to protest the presence of agricultural firms on their ancestral land in Temuco, Chile, on Feb. 7.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Mapuche Indians from the Temucuicui Autonoma community wait to welcome members of other Mapuche communities to attend a "Guillatun," a spiritual ceremony to ask for the well-being of the clan and strengthen ties in Ercilla, Chile, on Feb. 9.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A Mapuche Indian performs during a "Guillatun," a spiritual ceremony to ask for the well-being of the clan and strengthen ties, in the Temucuicui Autonomous community in Ercilla, Chile, on Feb. 10.

Now, after decades trying to appease Mapuche demands, Chile's government finds itself at an impasse over how to ease tensions. In the last three years, it has returned 10,000 hectare (25,000 acres) to the Mapuche and encouraged timber companies and other landowners to allow people to till small plots.

Yet the violence has only grown as the Mapuche demand the return of some 400,000 hectares (1 million acres) — about the size of Rhode Island.

Continue reading.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Mapuche Indians gather for a "Guillatun," a spiritual ceremony to ask for the well-being of the clan and strengthen ties in the Temucuicui Autonomous community in Ercilla, Chile, on Feb. 10. "We're not trying to kick anybody out," said Aucan Huilcaman, a Mapuche leader. "We're not asking for more roads or more seeds. We're asking for our own government because this is our land. It's not anti-Chilean, it's pro-Mapuche."

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Mapuche Indian women prepare lunch during a "Guillatun," a spiritual ceremony organized by Mapuche communities to ask for the well-being of the clan and strengthen ties, in the Temucuicui Autonoma community, in Ercilla, Chile, on Feb. 10.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Martin Nicolas Coñumil, 9, helps his grandfather Carlos Coñumil, 84, who is an Indian Chief or "Lonko" in Mapuche, in the Collico community in Ercilla, Chile, on Feb. 15.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Mapuche Indians gather for a "Guillatun," a spiritual ceremony to ask for the well-being of the clan and strengthen ties in the Temucuicui Autonomous community in Ercilla, Chile, Feb. 10.

Andreas Solaro / AFP - Getty Images

Italian businessman Marcello De Finizio stands on the dome of St Peter's basilica to protest against austerity measures on May 21, 2013 at the Vatican.

A man climbed onto a ledge on the dome of St Peter's Basilica on Monday and unfurled a banner protesting against a "political horror show," an apparent reference to Italy's embattled coalition struggling with recession and high unemployment.

Identified by police as Marcello Di Finizio, the man unfurled a white banner reading "Stop this massacre!" in English, scrawled in black and red ink, with "Help us Pope Francis" in Italian.

Di Finizio, who was still on the ledge on Tuesday, has staged similar protests in the past. Last October he stayed overnight on the dome with a banner criticizing multinationals, Europe, and former Prime Minister Mario Monti. Read the full story.

Filippo Monteforte / AFP - Getty Images

Dieu Nalio Chery / AP

Supporters of Haiti's former President Jean Bertrand Aristide stand around Aristide's car as he leaves the courthouse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, May 8, 2013. The two-time president showed up at the courthouse to testify before a judge investigating the 2000 slaying of Jean Dominique, one of the Caribbean country's most prominent journalists.

By Trenton Daniel, Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide made a rare public appearance Wednesday and thousands of supporters shadowed the ex-leader's motorcade following a court hearing.

The two-time president showed up at a courthouse in downtown Port-au-Prince with a delegation of longtime allies to testify before a judge investigating the slaying of one of the Caribbean country's most prominent journalists. The hearing was closed to the public.

Dieu Nalio Chery / AP

A supporter of Haiti's former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide holds up an image of Aristide and yells "Aristide is king!"

Dieu Nalio Chery / AP

A police officer uses his baton to beat back supporters of Haiti's former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who gathered outside the courthouse where Aristide arrived earlier in the day.

Aristide waved to a small group of onlookers outside the court before his session with an investigative magistrate to answer questions about the April 2000 killing of radio journalist Jean Dominique. Former President Rene Preval answered questions in the case early this year. Both men were friends of Dominique.

Dieu Nalio Chery / AP

Flanked by body guards, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, center, greets supporters as leaves the courthouse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Aristide left the courthouse through a back exit three hours later. In an apparent ploy to prevent journalists from following the former president, news media were told to assemble in a nearby room for a news conference with Aristide, which was never held.
Continue reading.

Related Content

• Aristide returns to Haiti, ends seven years of exile

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Ahmedi guards protecting an Ahmedi mosque in Lahore, Pakistan on April 30, 2013. Ahmedis are reviled by mainstream Muslims as heretics because they believe a prophet followed Mohammed, defying the basic tenet of Islam that says Mohammed is the last prophet.

Lahore, Pakistan — In majority Muslim Pakistan, religious minorities say democracy is killing them.

Intolerance has been on the rise for the past five years under Pakistan's democratically elected government because of the growing violence of Islamic radicals, who are then courted by political parties, say many in the country's communities of Shiite Muslims, Christians, Hindus and other minorities.

On Saturday, the country will elect a new parliament, marking the first time one elected government is replaced by another in the history of Pakistan, which over its 66-year existence has repeatedly seen military rule. But minorities are not celebrating. Some of the fiercest Islamic extremists are candidates in the vote, and minorities say even the mainstream political parties pander to radicals to get votes, often campaigning side-by-side with well-known militants.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Ahmedis praying in their mosque, which displays an Arabic sign saying 'In the name of god, people are praying', in Lahore on April 30, 2013.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

A Shiite worshipper at a shrine in Jhang on May 1, 2013. Minority Shiites in Pakistan have little hope that the May 11 general elections will help them because they fear Sunni radicals, who have targeted Shiites, could gain political strength.

About 96 percent of Pakistan's population of 180 million is Muslim. Most are Sunni, but according to the CIA Factbook about 10 to 15 percent are members of the Shiite sect. The remaining 4 percent are adherents to other religions such as Christians, Hindus and Ahmedis.

More than a dozen representatives of Pakistan's minorities interviewed by The Associated Press expressed fears the vote will only hand more influence to extremists. Since the 2008 elections, sectarian attacks have been relentless and minorities have found themselves increasingly targeted by radical Islamic militants. Minorities have little faith the new election will change that. Read the full story.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

A Christian woman peering out from inside a church as angry Christians protest the beating of a young man from the Joseph Colony, a Christian neighborhood in Lahore, on April 30, 2013.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Barber Elias, 25, a Christian who was injured when he was beaten by radical Muslims, in the Joseph Colony in Lahore on April 30, 2013.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Christians protesting the beating of a young Christian belonging to the Joseph Colony, in Lahore on April 30, 2013.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

A Christian repairing his home after it was attacked by radical Muslims, in the Joseph Colony in Lahore on April 30, 2013.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Homeless Hindus sleeping in a shrine cared for by Omparkarh Narian, 55, in Rawalpindi on May 4, 2013.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

Launch slideshow