Kyodo News via AP

A nomad voter arrives at a yurt temporarily serving as a polling station in Hovt, western Mongolia, on June 28, 2012.

Mark Ralston / AFP - Getty Images

A man walks past graffiti proclaiming freedom of speech on the eve of parlimentary elections in Ulan Bator on June 27, 2012.

The Associated Press reports from ULAN BATOR, Mongolia — Mongolians traveled by foot, car and horse to vote for a new legislature Thursday in an election that centered on better spreading the benefits of Mongolia's mining boom across the vast and still largely poor country. 

A poll this month showed the opposition Democratic Party with a slight edge over the ruling Mongolian People's Party, though neither had the support to win an outright majority in the 76-seat parliament.

The Democratic Party has cast itself as better placed to help the poor and unemployed and portrayed the ruling MPP as beholden to the rich. Read the full story.

The Guardian: Mongolia's new wealth and rising corruption is tearing the nation apart

PhotoBlog: Nuggets of gold on a journey across the Mongolian steppe

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Mark Ralston / AFP - Getty Images

Herdsmen vote at a polling station during the Mongolian parliamentary elections in the village of Zurlug on June 28, 2012.

How Hwee Young / EPA

People outside a luxury store in Ulan Bator on June 27, 2012 on the eve of the parliamentary elections. Mongolian has some of the world's largest reserves of gold, iron ore, copper and coal, while one-third of the population lives under the official poverty line.

Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers take positions on a hill near the Spozhmai Hotel following an attack by Taliban militants at Qargha lake on the outskirts of Kabul on June 22, 2012.

Omar Sobhani / Reuters

Smoke rises from the hotel as NATO helicopters fly over the site of an attack on June 22, 2012.

Musadeq Sadeq / AP

People hide from militants outside the Spozhmai hotel on Lake Qurgha during an attack on June, 22, 2012.

By Cheryll Simpson, NBC News in Kabul and Reuters — Updated at 7:38 a.m. ET Friday — Guests swam for their lives after five Taliban gunmen attacked a lakeside hotel in Afghanistan, killing at least 18 people and taking 50 others hostage in a siege lasting several hours, according to reports.

At least five militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns attacked the exclusive Spozhmai hotel in the Qargha Lake recreation area around midnight local time on Thursday (3:30 p.m. ET) bursting into a private party and shooting dead hotel workers. Read the full story.

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Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

Smoke rises from the Spozhmai Hotel following an attack by Taliban militants on June 22, 2012.

Omar Sobhani / Reuters

ANA soldiers run for cover during the hotel attack on June 22, 2012.

Musadeq Sadeq / AP

Afghan security forces and civilians are seen at the Spozhmai hotel after the attack on June 22, 2012.

Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

A half-eaten birthday cake is pictured at the Spozhmai Hotel after the attack on June 22, 2012.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Ahmad Jamshid / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

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Bay Ismoyo / AFP - Getty Images

Afghan cardiologist Rahima Stanikzair, 43, travels to her private clinic after finishing work at the French Medical Institute for Children (FMIC) in Kabul on May 13, 2012.

Agence France Presse reports — Afghan cardiologist Rahima Stanikzair works 14 hours a day serving dozens of patients with heart problems at a private clinic as well as at the French Medical Institute for Children in Kabul.

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, she continued working as a doctor as male medical personnel were banned from examining women.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• In rural Afghanistan, the doctor arrives on the back of a donkey
• Childbirth in the country that is statistically the worst place to be a mother

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Bay Ismoyo / AFP - Getty Images

Rahima Stanikzair monitors an infant's heart at the French Medical Institute for Children (FMIC) in Kabul on May 13, 2012.

Bay Ismoyo / AFP - Getty Images

Rahima Stanikzair leaves her office during her lunch break on May 13, 2012.

Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images

Afghan police personnel gesture as they evacuate onlookers from the site of a suicide bomb attack in Kabul on Wednesday, May 2.

Omar Sobhani / Reuters

Afghan security forces members inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Kabul on Wednesday.

NBC News and msnbc.com news services reports: A suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into a blast wall in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, an interior ministry spokesman said. Sediq Sediqqi said that there was only one attacker, dismissing reports that more than one insurgent was involved in the assault against a housing compound for westerners.

Police chief Ayub Salangi told Reuters the car bomb exploded on Jalalabad road, the main road out of the capital heading east, where several U.S. military bases and compounds housing Westerners are located. A guard and five civilians were killed. Salangi told NBC News that one of the civilians is a school child.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Rahmat Gul / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

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Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images

A man sprays water onto the beak of his rooster during a break in between rounds at a weekly cockfight gathering in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 20, 2012.

Agence France Presse reports — Cockfighting, known as Murgh Jangi in the Dari language, is a popular winter game among Afghans. Like a number of other sports and pastimes, it was banned by the Taliban.

The heels and bills of the birds are sharpened before fights, which run for 4 to 6 rounds with each round lasting between 10 and 20 minutes. Some 100,000 to 200,000 Afghanis ($2,000 to $4,000) can change hands among spectators placing bets during these fights.

Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images

A man holds his rooster.

Related content:

• PhotoBlog: A quail fight in Kabul
• World Blog: In Afghanistan, it's dog-fight-dog world
• Gunmen open fire on Texas cockfight, killing 3
• Video: Boxing chickens

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David Gray / Reuters

A small-scale miner digs a hole searching for gold on a small hill overlooking grasslands in rural Mongolia on April 4, 2012. Pictures made available on April 19.

David Gray / Reuters

Reuters reports — In a hot, concrete hut filled with acetylene fumes, an elderly Mongolian miner struggles to contain her excitement as she plucks a sizzling inch-long nugget of gold from a grubby cooling pot and raises it to the light.

65-year-old Khorloo is a member of a new Mongol horde of at least 60,000 herders, farmers and urban unemployed trying to extract the riches buried in the vast steppe with metal detectors, shovels and home-made smelters.

See more of photographer David Gray's work from Mongolia on PhotoBlog

In the last five years, dwindling legal gold supplies and a spike in black market demand from China have made work much more lucrative for Mongolia's "ninja miners" - so named because of the large green pans carried on their backs that look like turtle shells. For thousands of dirt-poor herders, the soaring prices alone are enough to justify years of harassment, abuse and hard labor. Read the full story.

David Gray / Reuters

A miner pours water into a crushing machine in an attempt to siphon gold at a processing plant around 100 km (62 miles) north of Ulan Bator.

David Gray / Reuters

A miner holds gold that was melted together at a processing plant.

David Gray / Reuters

A miner removes rocks from a hole he dug to search for gold.

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Musadeq Sadeq / AP

Afghan special forces are seen on top of a building which had been occupied by militants, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 16, 2012.

Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

Afghan policemen and officials stand next to the wreckage of a car used in a suicide attack in front of a building from which insurgents launched an attack, in Kabul on April 16, 2012.

The Associated Press reports — A brazen 18-hour Taliban attack on the Afghan capital ended early Monday when insurgents who had holed up overnight in two buildings were overcome by heavy gunfire from Afghan-led forces and pre-dawn air assaults from U.S.-led coalition helicopters. Read more.

GRAPHIC WARNING: This post contains graphic images which some viewers may find disturbing. 

Parwiz / Reuters

An Afghan National Army soldier keeps watch near the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) as a NATO helicopter flies over the site of an attack in Jalalabad province April 15. Gunmen launched multiple attacks in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, assaulting Western embassies in the heavily guarded, central diplomatic area and at the parliament in the west, witnesses and officials said. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the assault, one of the boldest on the capital since U.S.-backed Afghan forces removed the group from power in 2001.

"These attacks are the beginning of the spring offensive and we had planned them for months," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters.

The U.S. Embassy was under lockdown but all staff there are safe, according to spokesman Gavin Sundwall. "The U.S. Embassy is currently in lockdown, following our standard operating procedures after hearing explosions and gunfire in the area," he said.

-- Reported by Sohel Uddin, NBC News in Kabul, and Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com

Ahmad Jamshid / AP

A NATO soldier runs to the scene of a attack by Taliban militants in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 15.

Noorullah Shirzada / AFP - Getty Images

An Afghan policeman runs at the scene of a suicide bomb attack outside the airport in Jalalabad on April 15. Suicide bombers struck across Afghanistan in coordinated attacks, with explosions and gunfire rocking the diplomatic enclave in the capital as militants took over buildings and tried to enter parliament. Outside the capital, attackers also targeted government buildings in Logar province, the airport in Jalalabad, and a police facility in the town of Gardez in Paktya province.

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Photographer David Gray has been traveling across a small part of Mongolia, which is the least densely populated country on the planet according to figures cited by Reuters. The population of just 2.7 million is spread across an area three times the size of France, with two-fifths of Mongolians living in rural areas. 

David Gray / Reuters

Horses graze on grasslands south-west of the Mongolian capital city Ulan Bator on April 4, 2012.

David Gray / Reuters

A painting of the former Mongolian Emperor Genghis Khan hangs from the wall of a mining hut located around 62 miles north of Ulan Bator on April 5, 2012.

David Gray / Reuters

A frozen river is seen next to a group of houses located on the outskirts of the Mongolian capital city of Ulan Bator on April 3, 2012.

Reuters examines the political situation in Mongolia ahead of parliamentary elections in June: 

Mongolia sits on vast quantities of untapped mineral wealth, the exploitation of which is likely to turn it into one of the world's fastest growing economies over the next decade. 

But political uncertainty worries investors. One of the parties in Mongolia's shaky coalition government said it would pull out before the vote, and politicians are under constant pressure to be seen to getting a good deal for the country from resources investors.

The priority for Mongolia is the development of its tiny economy, and foreign investors want to know if the government can create a stable legal environment while handling the pressures exerted by impatient citizens as well as its two giant neighbours, Russia and China. Read more.

David Gray / Reuters

A herder stands on a hill overlooking grasslands south-west of Ulan Bator on April 4, 2012.

David Gray / Reuters

A dog sits at the door to a house in a small township located on grasslands south-west of Ulan Bator on April 4, 2012.

David Gray / Reuters

A woman performs a water displacement test to determine the purity of some gold that was brought in by small-scale miners at a processing plant north of Ulan Bator on April 5, 2012. The International Monetary Fund estimates Mongolia's GDP could grow as much as 10 percent this year, helped by rising gold prices but there is concern over environmental standards in the mining industry.

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Nowruz, the Persian New Year, has been celebrated for over 3,000 years. Coinciding with the spring equinox, it is marked in parts of the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East and other regions. 

Musadeq Sadeq / AP

A musician plays an instrument called a dombura at a celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, in Kabul, Afghanistan on March 20, 2012.

Musadeq Sadeq / AP

A couple sits on a hill overlooking a celebration of the Nowruz at the Kart-e-Sakhi shrine in Kabul on March 20, 2012.

Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

Afghan security forces block a road leading to the Sakhi Shrine in Kabul on March 20, 2012.

Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

Men raise an Islamic flag called "Alam" at the Sakhi Shrine in Kabul on March 20, 2012.

Musadeq Sadeq / AP

A boy dances at a celebration of Nowruz in Kabul on March 20, 2012.

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Allauddin Khan / AP

An Afghan villager, right, shows an empty canister allegedly used by US forces during Sunday's killing of civilians at a prayer ceremony for victims in Panjwai, Kandahar province, on March. 13, 2012.

Allauddin Khan / AP

Villagers listen to speeches during a prayer ceremony for victims of Sunday's killing, in Panjwai on March. 13, 2012.

Allauddin Khan / AP

Afghan security forces take up positions in a dried water canal after Taliban militants opened fire on a delegation of senior Afghan officials in Panjwai on March. 13, 2012.

Suspected insurgents opened fire on Tuesday on senior Afghan investigators of the massacre of 16 civilians by a lone U.S. soldier, Afghan officials said, just hours after the Taliban threatened to behead American troops to avenge the killings.

The gunmen shot from long range at two of President Hamid Karzai's brothers, Shah Wali Karzai and Abdul Qayum Karzai, and security officials at the site of the massacre in Kandahar's Panjwai district.

Karzai's brothers were unharmed in the brief battle, which began during meetings with local people at a mosque near Najiban and Alekozai villages, but a soldier was killed and a civilian wounded. 

In Washington, President Obama said he viewed the killing of 16 Afghan civilians as seriously as if those killed had been Americans.

"The U.S. takes this as seriously as if it were our own citizens and our own children who were murdered," Obama said at the White House.

-- Msnbc.com and news services contributed to this post

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Jangir / AFP - Getty Images

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Akhter Gulfam / EPA

Smoke rises from the site of a bomb blast in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, on March 7, 2012.

A motorcycle bomb in southern Afghanistan killed four civilians and injured eight on Wednesday morning, the European Pressphoto Agency reports. The bomb exploded in a crowded area in Spin Boldak, a town along the Pakistan border, according to Parwiz Najib, a senior official in the provincial governor's office.

Elsewhere, six British soldiers were feared killed after an explosion hit their armored vehicle in the southwest of the country, Britain's Ministry of Defense said.

Akhter Gulfam / EPA

Afghan police tranfer an injured victim to a local hospital in Spin Boldak on March 7, 2012.