Paris May Face Curfew as Efforts to Curb Rioting Continue

PARIS, Nov. 9 - The French government, continuing its efforts to curb riots across the country, published a state-of-emergency decree today empowering local authorities to impose a curfew on 38 towns and regions, including the city of Paris.

An Interior Ministry official, asked whether the curfew would be enforced in Paris tonight, said officials had not yet decided. A city's presence on the list "does not mean a curfew is automatic," said the official, Luc De Flandres of the ministry's press department.

Other towns on the list included Nice, Marseille, Dijon, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Nancy, Rouen, Avignon, and the entire Ile-de-France region encompassing Paris and its suburbs.

France-Inter radio said curfews would be imposed "in a certain number of places," mainly affecting minors under the age of 16. But in one town in Normandy - Evreux, where rioters staged particularly violent attacks on Saturday night - the overnight curfew will apply to adults as well, the state-funded radio said.

The decree on the curfews follows a decision this week by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to enact a 50-year-old state of emergency law written during the Algerian War. The law took effect by decree at midnight today and will remain in force for 12 days.