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Three trouble spots around the globe

Ukraine unrest
Ukrainian opposition supporters gathered at a mass rally on Independence Square in Kiev last Sunday. The European Union suspended association talks with Ukraine as more than 200,000 protesters massed in the heart of Kiev, demanding that the government recommit itself to the West.
GENYA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images

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Christians and Muslims are killing each other in the Central African Republic. Although reliable casualty estimates are unavailable, some observers have said the situation there could turn into a genocide, and they urge U.N. intervention to stop it.

From the New York Times:

"If the post Rwanda and Bosnia 'never again' means anything, the U.N. Security Council needs to go all in to halt the spiraling killing in the Central African Republic," said the United Nations director of Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion. "This is a moment of truth."

In North Korea, Kim Jong Un had his uncle and mentor purged and then executed. Many in the West saw it as a troubling development, because Jang Song Thaek had been regarded as a moderating influence on his nephew and a reliable trading partner for China.

From the Washington Post:

Some analysts see it as a Stalin-style warning to other potential rivals, those who think that Kim is either too untested or unqualified to run the country.

Kim is thought to be 30 years old, making him one of the world's youngest heads of state. Some who study the North say that, because of his age, he has felt it necessary to quickly remove those older advisers who had been loyal to his father, Kim Jong Il.

In Kiev, protesters have turned out by the hundreds of thousands to demonstrate against Ukraine's movement back into Russia's orbit. The former Soviet republic had been on the verge of a partnership with the European Union until the government of President Viktor Yanukovych changed direction.

From the BBC:

The protesters are mainly from the Kiev area and western Ukraine, where there is a greater affinity with the EU, than in the Russian-speaking east and south - though they include eastern Ukrainians too. While many declare their desire for Ukraine to follow a European path, many others are angered by the actions of the government and what they see as the corruption of politicians.

The Daily Circuit checks in with a variety of foreign-affairs experts to get their read on these three world hotspots.