list.files() not compatible with all Unicode characters; file.exists() is compatible.

Sorry, your email was undecipherable because you sent HTML formatted email.
Please send plain text

Also, the 'at a minimum' information requested by the posting guide is 
essential here (which OS and locale, in particular).  In general file 
names not in the locale's encoding are unsupported.

Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, University of Oxford
1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK