Media reported that the scare was a false alarm. Paris police did not immediately return calls seeking information.

French media also said parts of a second tourist hub — the Saint-Michel subway station near Notre Dame Cathedral — were briefly evacuated following a similar threat. The station was the target of a terrorist attack in 1995 that killed eight and injured scores of people.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the threats. But it comes after the head of France’s counterespionage agency was quoted this weekend as saying that the risk of a terrorist attack on French soil has never been higher.

Bernard Squarcini told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper that France’s history as a colonial master in North Africa, its military presence in Afghanistan and a bill aimed at banning burqa-style Muslim veils in public all make the country a prime target for certain radical Islamist groups.

Earlier Tuesday, the ban on face-covering Islamic veils passed its final hurdle in parliament, but there was no immediate indication the threats were linked to the proposed ban.

The proposal drew the indignation of the No. 2 of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri, who said the drive to ban the veil amounted to discrimination against Muslim women.

Bomb threats are frequent in Paris, a city that has also experienced terrorism firsthand.

Algerian Islamic insurgents bombed the Saint-Michel station on July 25, 1995, killing eight people and injuring 150.

It was the first attack in a campaign of violence that terrorized Paris subway commuters. Gas cooking canisters loaded with nails, sometimes hidden in garbage cans, were used in many of the bombings.

In France, where people poured into the streets in 220 cities, setting off flares and beating drums, a banner in the southern port city of Marseille called for Europe-wide solidarity: “Let’s Refuse Austerity Plans!” The Interior Ministry said more than 1.1 million people demonstrated throughout France, while the CFDT union put the number at 2.5 million.

Some commuters were annoyed by the disruptions — even in strike-inured France.

“I’m just getting tired of this because this is not the first time,” said Henda Fersi, a passenger at the Part-Dieu train station in Lyon in southeast France. “I understand the strikers’ point of view but, still, they put us in a difficult situation and we’re penalized.”

French protesters are angry about the government’s plan to do away with the near-sacred promise of retirement at 60, forcing people to work until 62 because they are living longer. The goal is to bring the money-draining pension system back into the black by 2018.

As debate on the subject opened in parliament, Labor Minister Eric Woerth said the plan was one “of courage and reason” and that it is the “duty of the state” to save the pension system. He has said the government won’t back down, no matter how big the protests.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon reminded the French that it could be worse: In nearly all European countries, the current debate is over raising the retirement age to 67 or 68, he said. Germany has decided to bump the retirement age from 65 to 67, for example, and the U.S. Social Security system is gradually raising the retirement age to 67.

That sense of perspective was missing from many of the French protests, where some slogans bordered on the hysterical. One sign in Paris showed a raised middle finger with the message: “Greetings from people who will die on the job.”

Amid the Paris mayhem, European Union finance ministers meeting in Brussels agreed to create new financial institutions in hopes of preventing a repeat of the government debt crisis that nearly left Greece bankrupt and brought the European banking system to its knees. Market jitters remain — though the most apocalyptic scenarios discussed a few months ago, such as the collapse of the euro currency, have been put on the back burner.

In London, Underground workers unhappy about job cuts closed much of the city’s subway system — the first in a series of 24-hour strikes planned for the fall. The thousands of London maintenance workers, drivers and station staff who walked out say the cuts will hurt service and safety.

With the underground train service shut, buses had to take on extra loads, while vehicular traffic was heavy and city sidewalks were teeming with walkers and bikers.

“The bus system has been a mess today, but I got here,” said Anita Prazmowska of South London.

In France, some post offices shut down, schools were hamstrung and public hospitals were hit with a nearly 18 percent staff cut for the day. The strike also blocked the Atlantic coast port at Saint-Nazaire, including vessels that feed into the nearby Total refinery.

Civil aviation authorities asked airlines to cancel a quarter of their flights at Paris’ airports. Only two out of every five of France’s famed high-speed trains operated during the strike, which ran Monday evening through Tuesday night.

Some Paris commuters had to resort to the city’s rental bicycle system, Velib, and not all were happy about it. One commuter, Antonia Gilles, tried it for the first time: “It was a success but it was dangerous.”

Similar protests are set for elsewhere in Europe in coming weeks.

A general strike was planned in Spain for Sept. 29 over labor market reforms, and in the Czech Republic, a massive protest against proposed austerity measures, including 10 percent salary cuts for state employees, was set for Sept. 21.

In Greece, all public transport workers in the Athens area are to stop work Wednesday for five hours to protest planned reforms to the indebted railway company. Rail and suburban rail workers are to repeat the work stoppage Thursday.

The French strikes come at a time when conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy’s approval ratings hover in the mid-30 percent range.

On top of that, an unfolding tax and party financing scandal centered on the fortune of the L’Oreal cosmetics heiress has left many wondering if the government cares more about the interests of the rich and powerful than ordinary workers.

“If we need money … we know where to find it,” said Guy Gamet, a 55-year-old representative of the Workers Force union as he marched in Lyon, in the southeast. “When it was necessary to bail out the banks not so long ago, we knew where to find the money.”

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Associated Press writers Jill Lawless and Gillian Smith in London, Jean-Marie Godard in Paris and Pan Pylas in Brussels contributed to this report.

Quick’s meat is certified as halal, but Cheikh Al Sid Cheikh, assistant to the rector of the Paris Mosque, said the burger chain should have had the other ingredients checked as well, from its mustard to buns to fries.

“The rest must be validated too, or else there’s no point,” he told The Associated Press. Quick responded that it has no intention of making any of its restaurants halal through-and-through — beer is still served there, for example, said spokeswoman Valerie Raynal.

Such cultural sensitivities are new territory for many French companies. Until recently in France, a country obsessed with secularism, companies were hesitant to reach out to France’s Muslim population, estimated to be 5 million, the largest in Europe.

Quick, the No. 2 burger chain in France after McDonald’s, is the latest group to enter the expanding French market for halal food, which has an estimated euro5.5 billion ($7 billion) in annual sales, according to a study by France’s Solis marketing agency.

Both the Casino supermarket chain and the Fleury Michon line of cold cuts have halal offerings. The Paris Mosque has high praise for Kentucky Fried Chicken France, which it says spent four months consulting with Muslim officials recently about its fare. The chain is a rarity in that it has offered halal food for years — though it never trumpeted the fact.

Part of companies’ reticence may have been political. Quick’s announcement prompted a torrent of negative commentary from the far right and from the rest of the political spectrum, with complaints that the company was forcing halal food on non-Muslims. Only about 6 percent of the chain’s outlets have gone halal.

The brouhaha over the burgers follows a debate on burqas, which France is preparing to ban — a symbol of the country’s insistence that integration is the only path for its minorities.

Beyond the political chatter, the Paris Mosque’s reaction highlights disagreement among France’s Muslims about what foods are really halal, who is qualified to decide, and whether the certification agencies are rigorous enough in making sure that animals are slaughtered properly.

Halal meat must come from animals that have been killed by a cut to the jugular vein. The animal’s head is pointed toward Mecca, and a blessing is recited.

Fateh Kimouche, founder of the French Muslim consumer Web site Al-Kanz, says most of the 40 to 50 outlets in France that provide halal certification aren’t rigorous enough and don’t have their own inspectors to verify that Islamic law is being respected.

He says the situation is scandalous, calling it “halal-gate.”

“Up to 90 percent of meat marked ‘halal’ isn’t really, and there are big names in French industry that are up to their necks in the problem,” he said.

Beyond that concern, he says Quick’s decision will be a wake-up call to big business about how important the halal market is in France. Quick, for its part, says business has doubled in recent months at eight outlets that have already tested the concept.

The prosecution argued that millions of dollars that passed through Noriega’s French accounts during the late 1980s were kickbacks from the powerful Medellin cocaine cartel.

His lawyers had pressed for an acquittal, saying the trial was part of a political plot against him and arguing that Noriega’s age and poor health mean he would certainly die behind bars if convicted.

Noriega has blood pressure problems and is paralyzed on the left side following a stroke, his lawyers say. There has long been confusion about his true date of birth.

In court, Noriega portrayed himself as a foe of drug traffickers and said the money in his French accounts came from personal and family businesses. He also said some of it was payments from the CIA.

Noriega had long been considered an important CIA asset before he joined forces with drug traffickers and was implicated in the death of a political opponent.

His lawyers suggested his U.S. conviction was part of a strategy to keep Noriega silent after his relationship with the CIA went bad.

In an energetic hour-long monologue in court last week, Noriega said his problems began when he refused to cooperate in a U.S. plan aimed at ousting the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s. He also blamed the U.S. for a “conspiracy” that has kept him behind bars for 20 years.

France already convicted Noriega and his wife in absentia in 1999 for laundering cocaine profits through three major French banks and using drug cash to invest in three luxurious Paris apartments on the Left Bank. He was granted a retrial.

Noriega is being held at the La Sante prison in southern Paris. His lawyers say the prison is squalid and unfit for a man of his age and rank. France has refused to grant him prisoner of war status, which he had in the U.S.

Behind bars in Miami, Noriega had perks including the right to wear his military uniform and insignia. In France, he is not allowed to wear his trademark uniform and has showed up in court in an ordinary suit.

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Associated Press writer Pierre-Antoine Souchard contributed to this report.