Barrister is Clooney's new girl?

NEW YORK - Meet Amal Alamuddin, British barrister and George Clooney's rumoured new girlfriend.

The Lebanon-born brunette, who represents WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his fight against extradition to Sweden, has become the new target of the paparazzi after she was seen out with the actor, one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors.

Photographs in People magazine and Us Weekly showed her along a beach with Clooney last week in Seychelles before they jetted off for a safari in Tanzania.

On Tuesday, a tanned Clooney was seen exiting a New York hotel with her, en route to dinner.

They were first pictured last October leaving a London tavern after dinner together.

But Clooney, 52, trashed reports of a romance, telling People magazine that stories linking him with new women were "made up".

He had then just broken up with former wrestler Stacy Kleiber, 34, whom he dated for two years and who married tech entrepreneur Jared Pobre earlier this month.

But he and Alamuddin, 36, created a buzz last month when they appeared together at a White House screening of his film The Monuments Men, hosted by US President Barack Obama.

They held hands and "seemed very, very together", an observer said.

Their appearance was talked about as Assange had made no secret of his anger towards the United States during his extradition proceedings with Sweden.

Oxford and New York University graduate Alamuddin is a human rights and international lawyer who has served as an adviser to the United Nations as a consultant on crises in Syria and Lebanon, according to reports.

Multi-lingual in English, French and Arabic, she topped a list of hottest women barristers in London last year.

Other brunettes Clooney has dated include British model Lisa Snowdon and Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis.

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