The scientist, arrested in France, is suspected of involvement with Al-Qaida in the I

[David]

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The scientist, arrested in France, is suspected of involvement with Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb

The physicist, who was affiliated with an outside institute, has been assigned to analysis projects at the laboratory since 2003. He was one of more than 7,000 scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest atom smasher, said the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN. The scientist, arrested in France, is suspected of involvement with Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a French official said Friday. The North African group regularly targets Algerian government forces and occasionally attacks foreigners.

The physicist had no contact with anything that could be used for terrorism, CERN said in a statement.

"None of our research has potential for military application, and all our results are published openly in the public domain," the statement said.