Crackdown targets airport employees

Authorities rescinded the security clearance of 43 baggage handlers at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris because of suspicions that they were connected with radical organizations, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said.

He did not elaborate on what information authorities had received about the workers denied security badges, but at least some are known to be Muslims.

He said officials also closed “seven Islamist, clandestine and illegal prayer rooms” at Charles de Gaulle and at Orly, the second Paris airport, and that 18 imams preaching a radical brand of Islam had been expelled from France since January.