- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
Genocide: legal term source of political controversy
The reluctance of some European states to call out Russian atrocities in Ukraine as "genocide" has sparked tensions with Kyiv, but use of the precise legal term to describe the greatest of all crimes has long been a source of political contention.
US President Joe Biden this week said Russia's actions against Ukrainians amounted to genocide, in comments echoed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Premier Boris Johnson.
But French President Emmanuel Macron, also backed by Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz, declined to deploy the word in a stance Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky deemed "painful".
Zelensky has repeatedly branded Russia's military onslaught a "genocide", a term first coined by the Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in the 1940s.
It was enshrined in the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention in the wake of the extermination of Jews and other minority groups in World War II.
Under the convention, acts of genocide are committed "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also seized on the word to describe what he says is the persecution of Russian speakers in east Ukraine, a claim rubbished by Kyiv's Western allies.
- 'Use with great care' -
But beyond uncontested examples, such as the Holocaust and the 1994 mass killings of ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda, the employment of "genocide" by politicians has always been loaded.
In his comments, Macron said it was best to avoid "verbal escalations" and be "careful" with the use of the word.
In recent years, genocide has most commonly been called up by activists and some governments and legislatures to label China's persecution of its Muslim Uyghur minority, and the actions by Myanmar against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Going further back, Turkey has long rejected Armenia's stance that the World War I massacres of Armenians by Ottoman forces were genocide.
Ankara has angrily hit back at Western governments that see the massacres as a genocide, including when Biden recognised it as such in 2021.
Ukraine has in past decades also vigorously campaigned in the face of Russian opposition for the Stalin-era famines on its territory in the 1930s -- known as the Holodomor -- to be recognised as genocide.
Cecily Rose, a professor of international public law at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said there was "extensive evidence" to support the Rohingya and Uyghur genocides.
But she cautioned that the term "should be used by politicians with great care and caution and preferably on the basis of an independent fact-finding body," she said.
William Schabas, professor of international law at Middlesex University in London, described the word genocide as a "superlative" used when terms like war crimes or crimes against humanity do not seem strong enough.
"The problem with a superlative is that you have nothing further to use. You can only use it once," he said.
"The word genocide has a precise legal definition but it is also widely used by politicians and activists because of its capacity to inflame and excite," he added.
- 'Do same with all conflicts' -
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Karim Khan has already opened a probe into Ukraine and held virtual talks with Zelensky over what appears to be the targeted killings of civilians.
Celine Bardet, a lawyer and international crime investigator, applauded the swift opening of an inquiry but said she wished the "same is now done with all conflicts".
Urging that emotions should not get in the way of justice, she said the ICC risked reinforcing a reputation that it is an instance that "only works when the West pushes it to do so".
Biden said Tuesday that use of the term was apt, as it has "become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian".
Macron appeared to suggest particular prudence was needed in this context, given that Ukrainians and Russians were "brotherly peoples" with very similar ethnic origins.
But the comment by Macron -- who so far has not joined the line of European leaders heading to talks in Kyiv with Zelensky -- touched a particularly painful nerve in Ukraine.
"Talk of 'brotherly' ties between Russia and Ukraine is misguided. Brothers don't torture, rape, kill the others' family," Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Twitter.
R.J.Fidalgo--PC