Manchester United travel to Chelsea armed with a strong away form and some key players back from injury when they seek to take advantage of a Chelsea team in transition and grab a first league win at Stamford Bridge in a decade.

Meetings between the two sides have in recent years played key parts in the championship with the last seven titles having been won by one of the two clubs.

But when they meet in London on Sunday it is a different story as Chelsea are a hefty 12 points off the pace in fourth place and all but the most optimistic fan would rule them out of contention for the title.

With the best away record in the league, having lost one and won eight of 11 games, United head to London in good shape to pick up three points that would take them top of the league if leaders Manchester City fail to beat Fulham the previous day.

"Hopefully our form will stand up as it did in the Arsenal game," Ferguson told a news conference on Friday, referring to their 2-1 win at the Emirates stadium in their last away game in the league two weeks ago.

It's not an easy game going to Stamford Bridge, we've not beaten them since 2002 ... the last seven years we've fought with them for league titles so you expect it to be a hard game and it will be.

Ferguson's men beat Chelsea 3-1 at Old Trafford in September in what he called a "crazy" game where "it could have been 20-18" but he was not expecting a repeat even if the Londoners were still adjusting to life under manager Andre Villas-Boas.

"I don't think it will be anything like that, I think it will be much tighter, I'm sure of that," Ferguson said.

"I noticed when we played them in the home game that there are changes in style from the previous Chelsea teams.

"When a new manager comes in that's always the problem... Changes maybe take time. If he wants to play his way -- and everyone has a different philosophy and a different way of doing things -- that's what we're seeing with Chelsea at the moment."

Villas-Boas replaced Carlo Ancelotti last June with mixed results. While their league form has been faltering, they have qualified for the Champions League knockout stage while United suffered an embarrassing group-stage exit.

‘Bit better’
United, whose Premier League title defence has been hampered by a lengthy injury list, will be boosted for the Chelsea game by the return to the squad of long-term absentees Ashley Young and Tom Cleverley, as well as Nani and Wayne Rooney.

Winger Young has been sidelined for several weeks with a knee injury, while midfielder Cleverley has been out of action since October with an ankle problem.

"We're are a bit better this week... we hope that Rooney, Nani, Young, Cleverley will all be in the squad," Ferguson said.

‘Bit better’
"It is more likely Tom will play against Chelsea reserves on Monday but he is travelling with the team anyway."

Goalkeeper David de Gea missed the side's midweek victory over Stoke City but is expected to return to action in place of the injured Anders Lindegaard, who played in six of seven matches between Dec. 21 and Jan. 22.

"It looks like Lindegaard will be out for at least four weeks, maybe five to six, with ankle ligament damage," Ferguson said.

"We don't know what his recovery from injuries is like, so we'll have to wait and see, but I would have thought at least four weeks."

United are level on points with neighbors City, with 54 from 23 games, five ahead of third-placed Tottenham Hotspur.

The Goethe-Institut of Hanoi will host “Nha Mat Pho” (Street-front Houses), an exhibition of the work of artist Nguyen The Son, from March 8-28.

Recently, Hanoi’s residential buildings, which have long shaped the face of the city, have been changing dramatically. Instead of windows and balconies, which facilitate the communication between neighbors, tall billboards now seal the houses off from the street.

This exhibition reflects an aspect of the rapid transformation of Hanoi's architecture. Using paper and silk, this exhibition features photographic installations which play with the beholder’s perception and blur the line between reality and fiction; video installations are used to reflect the rapid change Hanoi has undergone over the past several years.

Nguyen The Son graduated from the Vietnam Academy of Fine Arts in 2002. In 2008, he began to pursue a Master’s degree in Fine Art Photography at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Nghe An Province's folklore is on its way to be recognized as world cultural intangible heritage.

The Folk Singing Promotion and Preservation Center in the central Vietnamese province of Nghe An has compiled a dossier on the local Nghe folk singing for submission for recognition as a UNESCO world intangible cultural heritage by 2015.

Nguyen Ngoc At, head of the center, said there are 32 professional Nghe folk singing troupes.

Eight artists belonging to these troupes have been honored as National Folk Artists.

The center is collecting documents, photos, recordings, and video clips about the art form to promote it at home and abroad, he said.

Last October the first Nghe folk singing festival was held in the province.

French pianist Marie Vermeulin

A solo recital by French pianist Marie Vermeulin will begin 8 p.m. at the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music on February 7.

The French pianist was a full time student from 2001 to 2004 at the Lyon Music Academy under the guidance of Hortense Cartier-Bresson and Edson Elias.

Later still, under the guidance of Roger Muraro, Vermeulin, who is also former student of Jacquelin Dussol, and Marie-Paule Siruguet at Music Academy of Boulogne, France, learnt more about French works in the 20th century.

In December 2009, she was awarded the “Pro Musicis” prize for performing for the disabled and the underprivileged who would not otherwise have a chance to attend classical music concerts.

Tickets, priced from VND100,000 to 200,000, are available at the HCMC Conservatory of Music, 112 Nguyen Du Street, District 1.

A corner of the exhibition One Corner of France.

Vietnamese photographer Le Nguyen Duy Phuong will present a solo exhibition of his works called “One Corner of France” in Hanoi through February.

It will feature works Phuong had exhibited at two previous exhibitions in France from 2008 to 2010: one, a collection of portraits, and the other, “My Experience of France,” depicting the changes in light due to the changes in season in France.

They also reflect a sense of loneliness and silence, a press release from L’Espace said.

Admission to the exhibition at L’Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street, is free.

Phuong held an exhibition in October 2009 titled “Photoquai – Meetings of Perspectives” at the famous Quai Brandly Museum in France.

A still from Thien menh anh hung (Destiny hero), which is distinguishing itself from other films set for release this Tet with fictional history script and the huge investment of nearly VND30 billion

The Vietnamese movie industry was shaken last year by one of its biggest ever scandals after a Department of Cinematography accountant fled the country with over VND36 billion (US$1.7 million).

It led to the resignation of the department’s director, Lai Van Sinh, and his deputy, Le Ngoc Minh, in September, just four months before the 17th Vietnam National Film Festival the duo was organizing.

Despite the scandal the festival went on, though the organization, understandably, came in for severe criticism.

Next to crop up was a plagiarism charge against Vietnamese-American director Victor Vu who had entered his Giao lo dinh menh (Inferno) in theCanh Dieu Vang (Golden Kite) Awards. The film was accused of being plagiarized from the 1991 Hollywood film “Shattered.”

The allegations prompted the awards’ organizers to take the film out of nominations list. But the awards were also a flop due to poor organization and allegations of dubious choice of winners.

There were more scandals and criticisms around the corner, but there were also some propitious signs.

Unseasonable success

In 2003 director Le Hoang came up with Gai nhay (Bar girls), which is now considered the catalyst for the revival of the local film industry after a long crisis starting in the 1990s. It is also considered to have kicked off the era of social movies in Vietnam. Until then they had all revolved around the wars.

With box-office earnings of VND12 billion (US$570,000) after being released during Tet, the film also ushered in the Lunar New Year as the default money-making season for Vietnamese films. Since then, of the 20 or so films made in Vietnam every year, most have been released during the festive season.

Long Ruoi (Big Boss), which was the second biggest hit last year after the Hollywood animated film “Kungfu Panda 2,” however, established conclusively that movies released at other times too can make profits.

The action comedy by Vietnamese-American director Charlie Nguyen earned VND49 billion ($2.3 million) in four weeks since its release in August, higher than big Tet releases like Co dau dai chien (War of the Brides).

A still from Long Ruoi (Big Boss), which garnered VND49 billion in four weeks last year, becoming the biggest hit of Vietnam’s summer film releases so far

The film’s producers said the reason they decided against a Tet release was the difficulty in finding cinemas then.

But they may not have been brave enough if only another Charlie Nguyen movie, De mai tinh (Fool for love), had not been released in April 2010 and gone on to become a hit.

The romantic comedy was the first true summer hit, selling an estimated 45,000 tickets in the first three days and raking in VND18 billion ($856,000) in the next four months. It had cost around VND6 billion ($285,350) to make.

A breath of fresh air

While Long Ruoi is proving the potential of the local movie market, Thien menh anh hung (Destiny Hero), the first Vietnamese martial arts film in 20 years, promises a breakthrough in filmmaking techniques and concepts in the country.

In fact, since its trailer came out in November the Victor Vu film has attracted the most attention among films set for release this Tet.

Instead of following the usual formula for festive blockbusters - comedy, action, sex, attractive girls who cannot act - Vu has chosen an unusual script. It is a fictional story about a family member of Nguyen Trai, one of Vietnam’s greatest poets and a famous Le Dynasty (1428-1527) mandarin, taking revenge for the killing of Trai and his family after a false allegation he murdered King Le Thai Tong.

Made at a cost of nearly VND30 billion ($1.4 million), it is the most expensive movie to be made by private producers in Vietnam since 2007. Clearly, Vu and his team seem to have at least the deep pockets needed to achieve their desire to “make a breakthrough,” and if the trailer is any indication, they are well on their way to doing it.

If the film does prove to be a commercial success, it could convince producers that quality movies could recover their investment. Their sole focus now seems to be not to make a loss – they often tell their director to eschew expensive scenes and sequences.

In 2011 there were also efforts to improve the movie industry.

For example, while national contests and awards continued to be controversial for their bad organization and questionable award choices, smaller ones like YxineFF 2011, an online short film festival begun in 2010, are establishing themselves as a forum for young, independent filmmakers.

In fact, last year YxineFF received more than 150 entries, including from other countries like Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. Many of them attracted large audiences.

The annual international filmmaking contest 48-Hour Film Project, first launched in Vietnam last year, received over 130 entries. It challenges competitors to make a short movie within 48 hours, and is expected to change local movie-makers’ concept of production.

Last year there were also seminars and lectures by Hollywood personalities like Phillip Noyce, the maker of The Quiet American.

All of these are good signs for the Vietnamese movie industry, which is coming out of its cocoon and becoming aware of what the rest of the world is doing.

A scene in Khat vong Thang Long (Thang Long’s aspiration).

Khat vong Thang Long (Thang Long’s aspiration), a film about the king who founded the capital city of Hanoi, could not take a spot in the competition for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2012 Academy Awards.

The film was out of nine finalists which was revealed on January 19, including Bullhead (Belgium), Monsieur Lazhar (Canada), Superclásico (Denmark), Pina (Germany), A Separation (Iran), Footnote (Israel), Omar Killed Me (Morocco), In Darkness (Finland) and Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan).

The nine films have defeated 54 entries, including Khat Vong Thang Long, which were submitted in the first audition taking place from mid October, 2011 to January 13, 2012.

The five official nominations will be announced on January 24, 2012.

The annual 84th Academy Awards will be held at Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on February 26, 2012.

The Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism has released the legal text which guides the local authorities on propagandizing people to donate small changes logically in public places of worship in 2012.

The text features on requesting the local authorities to step up guiding people to donate money in the appropriate places in pagodas and temples.

People’s unmethodical giving of loose cash in pagodas is said to create bad impact on the solemn religious places and the value of Vietnamese monetary unit.

Previously, the State Bank of Vietnam has reflected the reality of slapdash money donation in religious places to the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism.