Extreme weather patterns such as droughts, heatwaves, and excessive rainfall are threatening the future of fragrant crop production in Grasse, close to the French Riviera, where a microclimate that allows fields of may rose, tuberose, lavender and jasmine to blossom, and where the latter sells for a higher price than gold.
A heavily armed 17-year-old pupil of a secondary school in the town of Grasse, south-east France, was arrested by police after shooting four people including the school's headmaster who reportedly intervened to try and stop the attack.
A heavily-armed gunman, carrying grenades and explosives and reportedly aged 17, shot and wounded at least three people, including a headmaster, at a secondary school in Grasse, close to Nice, in south-east France.
In 2013, the French police internal investigation agency, the IGPN, opened a branch in Nice, the capital of the French Riviera where an environment of organised crime, prostitution and drugs trafficking feeds accusations of corruption within the local police. But the actions of the IGPN branch, and notably the methods of its commander, have shaken the morale of officers and sparked an internal inquiry into what one drugs squad chief called “unspeakable and unjust procedures, bordering on harassment”. Hélène Constanty reports.