London, Jan 3 : Radical Islamist preacher Omar Bakri, who has been banned from Britain, is on the run after Lebanese authorities issued an arrest warrant against him for giving weapons training to an extremist group called al-Qaeda Lebanon.

Lebanese security forces have issued an arrest warrant over allegations the preacher gave weapons training to an extremist group called al-Qaeda Lebanon, The Telegraph reported.

Bakri said that he had also recently been stopped from using the Internet to preach to followers in the UK.

The 50-year-old, who has been living in northern Lebanon since 2005, said that a military court, which he said had been encouraged to spy on him by British authorities, issued the warrant.

London, Jan 03 : Hollywood actor Robert Pattinson has revealed that when he was 12 years old his two sisters used to dress him up as a girl.

The Twilight heartthrob had two sisters who used to dress him in their clothes and introduce him as Claudia.

And the 22-year-old star, who has a huge female following, says he wasn't cool until he was 12.

"Up until I was 12, my sisters used to dress me up as a girl and introduce me as Claudia," The Sun quoted Robert, as saying.

The heartthrob revealed that he was not that outgoing when he was young.

"Twelve was a real turning point for me as I moved to a mixed school, and then I became cool and discovered hair gel," Robert said.

Vodafone has made announcement about the launching of its new service, named ‘Vodafone Friends Circle’ permitting customers to make local calls to family and friends more frequent and long.

The offer is for both pre paid and post paid users.

The facility allows users to add up at least 5 numbers and enjoy extra talk time to local calls at just 20 paise per min.

This service can easily be activated by sending an SMS ‘FRIENDS’ to a toll free number 144.

Assets under management (AUMs) of Indian mutual funds have shown an increase of 4 per cent in December 2008. AUM had been declining since last three months according to the data released by the AMFI. The growth is caused following good performance of income funds. AUM of the mutual fund industry stands at Rs 4,18,336 crore as on December end as compared to Rs 4,02,029 crore in November 2008.

The Union Government has relaxed the norms for external commercial borrowing (ECB) in its recently announced second economic booster package. The move would allow the integrated townships to raise funds from the international market. Integrated townships includes housing, commercial premises, hotels, resorts and city and regional level urban infrastructures.

Interest rate cap on all new entrants has been removed besides maturity period limits, re-imposed in May 2007 by the Reserve Bank of India. All ceilings would be re-looked at in May 2009 by the government.

London, January 3 : An owl and a Bassett Hound have hit it off to become best friends -and they love to watch TV together.

Beryl, the 16-year-old the Basset Hound could not keep his paws off the four-year-old owl Wol.

To the amazement of their owner Sara Ross, Tenterden, Kent, the pair often cuddled up together on an armchair to watch television, reports the Telegraph.

Sara said: "They are both rescue animals and they''re like best buddies. Wol needs full-time care and one day I was giving him a bit of exercise and he just plonked down on Beryl''s back. She doesn''t mind, she''s really laid back and a bit of a pussycat really.

"She didn''t mind at all and now you can''t keep them apart.