Society

At least eight people were killed and six injured when an over-loaded minibus rolled into a river Thursday in Sichuan Province, local authorities said Friday.

An eight-seat minibus, carrying 14 people, veered off a road at about 4:25 p.m. in Ebian County, Leshan City, said a county government spokesman.

The vehicle rolled about 30 meters into a river.

Six people, including the driver, died at the scene.

Two others died later after failing to response to emergency treatment.

The dead were five men and three women.

Among the six injured, two suffered serious injuries, but it was unclear if their conditions were life-threatening.

Officials from the county government are investigating the accident.

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.