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NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - George Clooney and Smoke House Pictures partner Grant Heslov will produce the film adaptation of "August: Osage County," the Pulitzer-Prize winning play by Tracy Letts.

 Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep will star as mother and daughter in The Weinstein Company's upcoming film, which John Wells is directing from Letts' adaptation.

 "It's already a great cast and great material and I can't think of anyone better than Harvey to put this all together," Clooney said in a statement. "And we're particularly excited to work with our dear friend John Wells. It's such a terrific group and we feel honored to help bring it to the screen."

 The dark comedy, which chronicles the women of the Weston Family, made its Broadway debut in 2007 and went on to win a Tony Award for Best Play.

 Clooney and Heslov are producers of the upcoming "Argo," Ben Affleck's latest film, and teamed up for last year's "The Ides of March," which they co-wrote and co-produced for Clooney to direct.

BRUSSELS  - Google  has received more than 1,000 requests from authorities to take down content from its search results or YouTube video in the last six months of 2011, the company said on Monday, denouncing what it said was an alarming trend.

 In its twice-yearly Transparency Report, the world's largest web search engine said the requests were aimed at having some 12,000 items overall removed, about a quarter more than during the first half of last year.

 "Unfortunately, what we've seen over the past couple years has been troubling, and today is no different," Dorothy Chou, the search engine's senior policy analyst, said in a blogpost. "We hoped this was an aberration. But now we know it's not."

 Many of those requests targeted political speech, keeping up a trend Google said it has noticed since it started releasing its Transparency Report in 2010.

 "It's alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect - Western democracies not typically associated with censorship," said Chou. (http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/more-transparency-into-government.html)

 In the second half of last year, Google complied with around 65 percent of court orders and 47 percent of informal requests to remove content, it said.

 The censorship report offers an overview of which officials have asked Google to delete content and why.

 In one case, Spanish regulators asked Google to remove 270 links to blogs and newspaper articles criticising public figures, including mayors and public prosecutors.

 So far Google has not complied. In March, Spain's highest court asked the European Court of Justice to examine whether requests by citizens to have content removed were lawful.

 In some countries, Google says it has no choice but to submit to these requests, because certain types of political speech are unlawful.

 In Germany, the company removes videos from YouTube with Nazi references because these are banned.

 Chou said that in Thailand videos featuring the monarch with a seat over his head have been removed for insulting the monarchy. The country has some of the world's toughest "lese- majeste" laws.

 In Canada, Google was asked by officials to get rid of a YouTube video showing a citizen urinating on his passport and flushing it down the toilet. But in that instance the company refused.

 Google and many other online providers maintain that they cannot lawfully remove any content for which they are merely the host and not the producer, a principle enshrined in EU law on eCommerce since 2000.

 In January 2012 the European Union's executive Commission announced it would introduce clearer guidelines on handling such requests, outlining under which circumstances it would be legal to have content removed from the Web and when it would curb free speech and fundamental rights.

 The Commission has launched a public consultation called "a clean and open Internet" and has asked companies how many requests they get to take down content, from whom and for what reason.

 Among examples of material that should be taken down EU regulators cite racist content, child abuse or spam. The rules are expected to be announced before the end of the year.

BANGALORE: French diplomat Pascal Mazurier, charged with allegedly raping his four-year-old daughter, could be arrested as soon as the Ministry of External Affairs clears his arrest.

With France refusing to interfere in the case saying that since the accused does not enjoy diplomatic immunity, Indian law will take its own course.

Earlier, the Bangalore police said that there were confused if the official was entitled to immunity and hence they could not arrest the accused.

Mazurier, the deputy head of the French consulate in Bangalore, based on preliminary findings that confirmed signs of sexual assault on the toddler.

Meanwhile, a flummoxed Bangalore police is awaiting directions from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Karnataka government on how to proceed in the case.

The police, as of now, have registered a case against 39-year-old Mazurier after a complaint by his wife Suja Jones, an Indian citizen. MEA officials in New Delhi are examining Mazurier's documents to ascertain if he is entitled to diplomatic immunity.

The 39-year-old was, however, released into the custody of the head of chancery at the consulate, Vincent Coumontant, after the official gave in writing that Mazurier would be presented whenever required and wouldn't be allowed to leave the city.

Police sources said Suja, who is from Ernakulam, Kerala, had met a counsellor as a victim of domestic violence. It was during one such counselling session that she spoke about her husband's behaviour with the child.

Egged on by the counsellor, the 37-year-old took the child to Baptist Hospital on June 6. On the hospital finding that it was a case of sexual assault, she approached the police on Thursday night, though it is not clear why she took so long to file the complaint.

The mother and child were sent to the state-run Bowring Hospital on Sunday. Mazurier was also taken for medical examinations. The hospital on Monday sent its findings and the child's clothes for forensic tests.

The police sources said they might have to go for a DNA test. "We have to wait for the test reports to decide the next course of action," deputy commissioner Gowda said.

New Delhi, June 18  Sports Minister Ajay Maken, stepping into the Indian Olympic tennis imbroglio, Monday asked the All India Tennis Association (AITA) to explain why it was keen on fielding the Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi pair at the London Games when they had returned empty-handed from the past four Olympics.

Maken asked AITA to submit its reply by Tuesday afternoon on why it was insisting on sending one team when they have the option of sending two teams.

Maken's decision to step in came on a day when Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, in a joint mail, requested the sports ministry to step in and resolve the selection fiasco.

"The government has been funding and supporting multiple players to train and qualify for the Olympics. The justification of denying two players (Bhupathi and Bopanna) who have qualified as a team on merit by sending one Indian team when India can send two teams may be explained," Maken said.

"Both Bhupathi and Bopanna have officially declined the opportunity to play with Paes in the current scenario. With two days left for the deadline, wouldn't AITA be sending Paes with a youngster to represent India at London Olympics. AITA's action is depriving India of sending another team to London. The reason must be explained," he said.

Maken also asked the AITA why it ignored the fact that Bhupathi and Bopanna qualified for the Olympics as a team on the basis of their combined rankings.

"It is not clear why is AITA insisting on sending a team that has represented India in four previous Olympics, especially when the team of Leander and Mahesh have returned empty handed each time and when both have openly voiced their concerns about playing together.

"It may also be intimated whether the AITA had spoken to all the three players and consulted them and whether their opinion have been taken before arriving at the decision," he said.

Earlier in the day, Bopanna and Bhupathi in a letter to Maken said AITA's decision to field one team defied logic.

"At a time when the country is doing its best to improve its Olympic record, the stance taken by the AITA of refusing to nominate the team which has already qualified and instead nominating two players who have played in the past four editions (unsuccessfully) is bemusing and difficult for us to understand," Bhupathi-Bopanna said in the joint mail.

Two Indian doubles teams can compete in the mega event as the World No.7 Paes is eligible to choose the player of his choice on the basis of his individual ranking while seventh-ranked Bhupathi and Bopanna qualify as a team.

The duo argued that AITA should have communicated to them if they were planning to send only one team.

"At no point did AITA suggest that we would be considered as anything but a team; in fact, their correspondence of March 2012 states that 'we have great possibility of having two doubles teams in the Olympic main draw'. If the objective, as proved by later events, was to send only one team, why was this not communicated to us," the Bhupathi-Bopanna duo said.