World Watch Monitor

• Upsurge in attacks signals growing Islamist threat in Niger

  Four attacks within the last three weeks in Niger have raised the spectre of a growing Islamist threat in the country.

• Gender-based violence 'wielded mercilessly' in Muslim countries

  Christian women vulnerable due to profound lack of equality, claims new report

• Iranians vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's successor

  But Christians expect little change no matter who wins Presidential election

• The rise of Islamic extremism in Central Asia and the Caucasus

  New wave of radicalism predicted as region undergoes transition

• Christians watchful as Sharif returns to power in Pakistan

  Fundamentalist ties, inaction on blasphemy laws give some cause for concern

• In Eritrea, 'Persecution greater than ever and getting worse'

  Around 1,200 Christians now incarcerated after a spate of arrests in 2013

• Unemployed and Christian in Egypt

  At the margins of a sour economy, the odds of finding a job are even longer

• Central African Republic: Human rights violations criticised

  The Catholic Church in the Central African Republic (CAR) has written a letter to the former rebel leader and new President Michel Djotodia raising concerns about his past and asking him to speak out against the suffering inflicted on civilians by his Séléka guerrillas.

• Iranian Christians face 'systematic persecution and prosecution'

  Iran's human rights record questioned in run-up to June elections

• India: Mob demolishes church

  Government officials stand by as walls come down

• Indonesia's Christians question tolerance award for president

  Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is the "president of intolerance", says Reverend Palti Panjaitan, of Batak Christian Protestant Filadelfia church, told World Watch Monitor.

• Life among Syria's Christian refugees

  No jobs, no school, and everything is expensive