Sajjad Hussain / AFP - Getty Images

Doctors prepare Roona Begum, a 15-month old girl suffering from hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid inside the skull that leads to swelling, for surgery at a hospital in Gurgaon, near New Delhi, on May 15, 2013.

Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images

Roona Begum's parents Abdul Rahman and Fatima Khatun wait in anticipation as their daughter is taken for an MRI exam at a hospital in Gurgaon on April 17, 2013.

Doctors carried out life-saving surgery Wednesday on an Indian baby suffering from a rare disorder that caused her head to swell to nearly double its size, in a case that aroused sympathy worldwide.

"The surgery went perfectly, much better than expected," neurosurgeon Sandeep Vaishya said after carrying out a procedure to drain fluid from the head of 15-month-old Roona Begum, who was born with hydrocephalus.

The condition had caused Roona's head to swell to a circumference of 38 inches, putting pressure on her brain and making it impossible for her to sit upright or crawl.

"My wife and I were both so worried this morning," said Roona's father, 18-year-old Abdul Rahman. "But now when the doctor says everything went well, I feel hugely relieved."

Arindam Dey / AFP - Getty Images

Fatima Khatun kisses the head of her daughter, Roona Begum, at their mud hut in Jirania village, Tripura, on April 13, 2013. Roona's father, Abdul Rahman, told AFP at the time that he was praying for "a miracle" to save his only child.

Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images

Roona Begum is wheeled to an operating room moments before she had a drain valve in her head changed at a hospital in Gurgaon on May 2, 2013. Publication of pictures taken by an AFP photographer prompted the hospital, run by the private Fortis Healthcare group, to offer to treat Roona for free.

Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images

Roona Begum's father caresses the arm of his daughter moments after she was brought out of the operating theater after doctors changed a drain valve on May 2, 2013.

Sajjad Hussain / AFP - Getty Images

Doctors prepare Roona Begum for surgery on May 15, 2013.

Sajjad Hussain / AFP - Getty Images

Roona Begum's parents greet her after surgery on May 15, 2013.

Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images

Roona Begum's mother sits with her daughter at a hospital in Gurgaon on April 17, 2013.

Related:

AFP Correspondent blog: A new life for baby Roona

Hope for girl born with hair covering half her face

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

Rafiq Maqbool / AP

Rescue workers look for trapped people after a residential building collapsed in Thane, Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 4, 2013.

At least 39 people were killed and dozens injured after an illegal, half-constructed building collapsed in seconds "like a pack of cards" on the outskirts of India's financial centre Mumbai, officials and witnesses said.

Rescue workers using cranes and bulldozers searched for survivors in the wreck of steel and concrete on Friday after the seven-storey building crumbled on Thursday night. Residents said laborers paying rent of around $5 a day had lived in it.

"The building collapsed like a pack of cards within three to four seconds," said Ramlal, a local resident. "It just tilted a bit and collapsed," he said. Read the full story.

Danish Siddiqui / Reuters

Rescue workers carry a woman who survived from the collapsed building.

Vivek Prakash / Reuters

Rescue workers search for survivors at the site of the collapsed building.

Danish Siddiqui / Reuters

Rescue workers carry a child who survived the collapse of a residential building in Thane.

Divyakant Solanki / EPA

Rescue work continued at the site of the building collapse on April 5, 2013.

AP

Rescue workers carry a young child who survived the building collapse on Friday, April 5, 2013.

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 4, 2013 5:39 PM EDT

Kevin Frayer / AP

Colored powder is thrown on Hindu men from the village of Nandgaon as they sit on the floor during prayers at the Ladali or Radha temple before the procession for the Lathmar Holy festival, the legendary hometown of Radha, consort of Hindu God Krishna, in Barsana, 71 miles from New Delhi, India, Thursday, March 21, 2013. During Lathmar Holi the women of Barsana beat the men from Nandgaon, the hometown of Krishna, with wooden sticks in response to their teasing as they depart the town.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• In a dirty, polluted river, prayers are offered
• Hindus worship the sun god as night falls during Chhath Puja
• With a flash and a bang, Hindus celebrate festival of lights

Dar Yasin / AP

Indian policemen take cover during a gunbattle in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, on March 13, 2013. A team of militants stormed a paramilitary camp Wednesday morning, leaving five soldiers and two militants dead, a police official said.

Dar Yasin / AP

Indian policemen and paramilitary soldiers react during a gunbattle in Srinagar on March 13, 2013.

Reuters reports — Two militants hiding automatic rifles and grenades in cricket equipment opened fire on a paramilitary camp on the Indian side of Kashmir on Wednesday, killing five Indian personnel and wounding five, police said.

The militants were killed in a gunfight at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) base just outside the restive city of Srinagar, which has been under curfew for much of the last few weeks following protests and clashes with police.

Local media reports said that Hizbul Mujahideen, the bitterly disputed region's largest militant group, had claimed responsibility for the attack, in which three civilians were also wounded.

Police said the gunmen approached the camp by mingling with children playing cricket in a nearby field, hiding their weapons in the cricket gear they were carrying. Once at the camp, they shot a sentry dead and then fired indiscriminately into the base. Read the full story.

EPA

Indian paramilitary soldiers carry a wounded colleague on March 13, 2013.

Aijaz Rahi / AP

Indian officials collect evidence at one of the two bomb blast sites in Hyderabad, India, early Feb. 22, after a pair of bombs exploded the previous evening.

Mahesh Kumar A / AP

Sujatha is overcome after seeing her husband Venkateshwarulu's body at a mortuary in Hyderabad, India, on Feb. 21. Her husband was killed in a pair of blasts in a crowded shopping area.

The AP reports: A pair of bombs exploded Thursday evening in a crowded shopping area in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, killing at least 11 people and wounding 50 more in the worst bombing in the country in more than a year, officials said.

The blasts occurred about two minutes apart outside a movie theater and a bus station, police said. Storefronts were shattered and television footage showed the wounded being rushed to hospitals. Read full story

EPA

An injured man is carried to hospital from the site of a bomb blast in Hyderabad.

Mahesh Kumar A / AP

A member of the bomb squad with a sniffer dog arrives at the spot after a bomb blast in Hyderabad on Feb. 21.

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Kevin Frayer / AP

Hindu holy man Baba Sanjay poses before and after he had his head and face shaved as part of an initiation ritual where he was to become a Naga Sadhu.

Kevin Frayer, a photographer with The Associated Press, took a series of photos of Hindu holy men before and after they had their beards and hair shaved off as part of the initiation ritual to become Naga Sadhus — naked holy men — at the Maha Kumbh Festival in Allahabad, India.

The initiation of new Naga Sadhus can only be performed at the Kumbh Mela, which occurs once every 12 years and sees millions of devotees converging at the confluence of three holy rivers: the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.

Editor's note: Photos taken on Feb. 13, 2013 and made available to NBC News today.

Kevin Frayer / AP

Baba Ramshwal.

Kevin Frayer / AP

Brihaspst Giri.

Kevin Frayer / AP

Baba Vinod.

Kevin Frayer / AP

Baba Giri.

Jitendra Prakash / Reuters

Hindu pilgrims crowd to board a train at an overcrowded railway station in the northern Indian city of Allahabad on Feb. 11. A stampede at a railway station in Allahabad killed at least 36 Hindu pilgrims on Sunday. Twenty-seven of the dead were women, mostly elderly and poor. An eight-year-old girl was also crushed to death.

Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP

Hindu devotees returning from Maha Kumbh jostle to get in a coach of a train at the main railway station of Allahabad, India, on Feb. 11.

Published at 12:30 p.m. ET:

Reuters reports: A stampede at a railway station in northern India killed at least 36 Hindu pilgrims on Sunday, the busiest day of the world's largest religious festival at which some 30 million had gathered to wash away their sins in the sacred Ganges river.

Twenty-seven of the dead were women, mostly elderly and poor. An eight-year-old girl was also crushed to death. A Reuters witness saw a woman weeping at the train station, surrounded by six bodies dressed in brightly colored saris. Read full story

Jitendra Prakash / Reuters

Hindu pilgrims sit on railways tracks as they wait to board their trains at an overcrowded railway station in the northern Indian city of Allahabad on Feb. 11.

Manish Swarup / AP

Hindu devotee returning from Maha Kumbh festival travel in an luggage van of a train from the main railway station of Allahabad on Feb. 13.

Harish Tyagi / EPA

Two unidentified Indian men who reportedly lost their sister in a deadly stampede comfort each other outside a mortuary in Allahabad on Feb. 11.

Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP

Relatives of the missing look at photos of victims of a stampede outside a hospital morgue in Allahabad on Feb. 11.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Stampede at Indian railway platform
• Millions converge on Ganges for world's largest (and still growing) religious festival

Follow @NBCNewsPictures

GRAPHIC WARNING: Contains images which some viewers may find disturbing. 

AFP - Getty Images

A man mourns the loss of a relative after a ferry accident in Munshiganj, Bangladesh, on Feb. 8, 2013.

Published at 10:14 a.m. ET: DHAKA, Bangladesh — At least two people died and dozens were rescued after a passenger ferry collided with another ship and capsized Friday on a river in central Bangladesh, dumping as many as 100 people into the water, officials and witnesses said.

Police said the ferry went down on the Meghna River in Munshiganj district, 20 miles south of the capital, Dhaka. By Friday evening, rescuers had recovered the bodies of a child and a woman.

There was confusion over the number of passengers on board the ferry at the time of the accident. Relatives and neighbors at the scene said some people were missing, but authorities would not provide an official list of those who were unaccounted for. Read the full story.

-- The Associated Press

A.M. Ahad / AP

Rescue workers carry the body of a victim ashore on the banks of the Meghna River at Munshiganj on Feb. 8, 2013.

Khurshed Rinku / Reuters

Rescue workers carry the body of a victim after a ferry sank in Munshiganj on Feb. 8, 2013.

Fareed Khan / AP

A rickshaw driver, his vehicle adorned with a message of peace, makes his way through the slums of Karachi, Pakistan on Feb. 2, 2013.

By Sebastian Abbot, The Associated Press

Published at 5:23 a.m. ET: KARACHI, Pakistan — Pakistani youth leader Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi has a plan to counter the relentless message of violence spewed forth by radical Islamic groups in his country — and he is stealing a gimmick from the hard-liners' own playbook to do it.

His weapon: the three-wheeled motorized rickshaws that buzz along Pakistan's streets carrying paying customers.

Fareed Khan / AP

Artists prepare colorful panels for rickshaws in Karachi on Feb. 2, 2013.

Radical Islamists have long used the rickshaws as a canvas to display slogans in support of religious warfare in neighboring India and Afghanistan and to foster hatred against the United States.

Zaidi is turning that strategy on its head with a fleet of rickshaws emblazoned with peace slogans and decorated with colorful designs similar to those found on many trucks and buses in the country. Read the full story.

Punit Paranjpe / AFP - Getty Images

A woman weeps as she speaks on the phone in her burnt-out house after a fire raged through the Nayanagar slum in Mumbai on Jan. 25, 2013.

A fire killed six people when it ripped through a slum in the heart of the Indian city, leaving hundreds homeless, emergency services said.

-- Agence France-Presse