Charges filed against 'al-Qa'ida' physicist

A French judicial official says preliminary charges have been filed against a physicist who works at the world's largest atom smasher and is suspected of al-Qa'ida links.

The 32-year-old Frenchman of Algerian origin, who works on the Large Hadron Collider, is suspected of involvement with a North African group of al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb.

A French judicial official says preliminary charges were filed today for "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Under French law, filing preliminary charges gives the investigator time to pursue the inquiry before deciding whether to send a suspect for trial or drop the case.