Special Characters In The Web Address help nedded for using special characters in the path and then usin the

[webaddict 0]

hi

i am new to htaccess.
i was trying to write a rewrite rule in the htaccess for utilizing special characters but was unsuccessful......
cud pl anyone help me out working out the same.....
here's it
i a trying to rewrite the following url

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

as

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

the code i added in htaccess was......

Options +FollowSymlinksRewriteEngine onRewriteRule ^\*(.+)$ index.php?$1 [nc]

thanks for ur help in advance......