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AROUND THE WORLD 1: The Not-So-Friendly Skies

On December 24th and 25th, Air France cancelled a total of six flights between Paris and Los Angeles, much to the annoyance of many people who were flying to visit family for Christmas. United States officials had information that made them worry about a possible hijack, maybe from a member of al-Qaeda. Many people with tickets to the flights were searched and questioned by French investigators, who said Thursday that they found no evidence of any attack being planned.

Seven men in particular were questioned because they were on a "watch list" the U.S. authorities had given France and also happened to be on the same flight to Los Angeles. After studying the case, however, French officials found no reason to keep the men in custody and said there wasn’t even enough evidence to continue an investigation.

More of an issue to the American government right now is that people who had reserved seats on some of the flights never even showed up to the airport. Officials say reports released earlier in the week showing concern over a terrorist attack coming from France may have tipped off these passengers to not show up for the flight.

At first, the United States asked France to place armed guards on some of the flights for extra security. France agreed, but then on Wednesday the U.S. said that it preferred the flights be cancelled instead. The first Air France flight was cancelled on Wednesday afternoon, and the hundreds of passengers were searched without being told why. Police guards with dogs roamed the airport. Unfortunately, most passengers did not have a clue what was going on until hours later, when they were finally told their flights were cancelled. Some people had to be re-routed on longer flights, and Air France flights didn’t start their normal schedule again until Friday, the day after Christmas.

The U.S. government issued a terror level of "orange," the second-highest level, nearly a week ago. (The worst level is "red", or severe, which means that a terrorist attack is extremely likely to happen.) Police and military increased their alertness in day-to-day life in the U.S., but now officials are turning their eyes overseas and across borders. Mexico was asked to increase its security all over airports, borders, and possible entry points to the U.S. They agreed, and a spokesman for Mexican President Vicente Fox said, "We do not want our country to be used as a trampoline for terrorist attacks against the United States."

--Written by Kari Elassal

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