Society

China's leading Internet search engine, Baidu, has filed a lawsuit in a New York court against a U.S. firm that managed its domain registration, Baidu said in a statement on Wednesday.

Baidu is seeking damages from its U.S. domain name registration service provider Register.com, Inc., following an attack on its website www.baidu.com last week, the Beijing-based company said in the statement.

Baidu's website was paralyzed for several hours after a cyber-attack on Jan. 12, denying users from many places around the world access.

Top Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou's controversial film "A Simple Noodle Story" will compete for the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, the organizer has announced.

Zhang's black comedy is one of two Chinese films vying for the Berlin festival's highest honor. The other is Wang Quan'an's "Tuan Yuan" ("Apart Together"), the festival's opening film.

"A Simple Noodle Story" was adapted from the Coen Brothers' "Blood Simple". It was Zhang's first film since his spectacular Oscar-nominated film, "Curse of the Golden Flower", in 2006.

Lu Chuan, director of award-winning film "City of Life and Death," on Thursday started shooting a short film for the China Pavilion at the upcoming Shanghai Expo.

The 8-minute film, "Beautiful Progress," or Mei De Li Cheng," would focus on the changes in Chinese cities since China introduced the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, Lu said.

He said a weathered man and his young son would be the leading roles in the film.

"All the vicissitudes will be threaded with expressions in their eyes," said He.

The filming will take about 20 days in cities including Beijing and Shanghai, and the film will be played at the top floor of the China Pavilion during the Shanghai Expo opening on May 1.

China said Thursday that its issues with Google should not be "over interpreted" or linked to Sino-U.S. relations.

"The Google case should not be linked with relations between the two governments and countries; otherwise, it's an over-interpretation," said Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei at a press conference.

If foreign companies, including Google, encountered difficulties in China, they should seek resolutions in accordance with Chinese law. The government was willing to help them solve relevant problems, he said.

His remarks came just nine days after Google said it might quit China.

Google's corporate development and chief legal officer, David Drummond, posted a statement on Jan. 12 on the company's official blog, saying it was "reviewing the feasibility of our business operations in China."

According to the statement, the disputes with the Chinese government on Internet regulation and major cyber attacks on the company allegedly originating from China had forced Google to consider exiting.

Google's statement sparked a worldwide focus on ties between China and the United States. Discussions included China's Internet environment, the China-U.S. trade relationship.

But China dismissed the links of Google case with the bilateral relationship.

"I think that should not be interpreted too much, and come up as something concerning the Chinese and U.S. governments," said He.