Clocks will go forward an hour at one o’clock in the morning, tomorrow, Friday, 29 March, when summer time begins.

The change had been intended to happen at 2 o’clock, but the government announced today that it was moving to 1 am.

The move to adopt daylight saving and stay in the same time zone as most countries in the Eureopan Union was taken last November by the government of Abdurrahim Al-Kib.

The EU countries, however, will be putting their clocks forward an hour on early Sunday morning.

The two-day difference in Libya and Europe changing times will not affect fight departures from Tripoli for Europe-bound flights.

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Pop superstar scores his best sales week ever with his first album since 2006.

It’s official: Justin Timberlake’s new album “The 20/20 Experience” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 968,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“20/20,” released on March 19, is Timberlake’s second No. 1 album and logs his best sales week yet. It follows his last release, 2006′s “FutureSex/LoveSounds,” which arrived atop the list with his previous high: 684,000. Timberlake’s first album, 2002′s “Justified,” debuted and peaked at No. 2 with a 439,000 start.

“20/20′s” monster sales are the 19th-largest week for an album since SoundScan started tracking data in 1991. The all-time best-selling week was when Timberlake’s former group, ‘N Sync, saw its “No Strings Attached” album debut with 2.42 million at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart dated April 8, 2000.

Timberlake’s bow with “20/20″ is biggest overall sales frame since Taylor Swift’s “Red” debuted with 1.2 million on the Nov. 10, 2012-dated chart. Among male artists, Timberlake has the largest week in nearly five years. The last larger by a man was when Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” debuted with 1.01 million on June 28, 2008.

Interestingly, “20/20″ also tallies the third-biggest week for a solo male singer (aka: non-rapper). Only Usher and Garth Brooks have scored larger frames. Their “Confessions” (2004) and “Double Live” (1998) sets debuted with 1.10 million and 1.09 million, respectively.

Sources say Apple’s iTunes Store was the top seller of “20/20″ for the week, as overall digital sales, with Target its No. 2 account. The latter was the only retailer with an exclusive version of the album: It includes two bonus songs unavailable anywhere else: “Dress On” and “Body Count.” Target has been heavily promoting the album via a series of TV commercials, the first of which premiered during CBS’ broadcast of the Grammy Awards on Feb. 10. For its part, iTunes had an exclusive stream of “20/20″ that premiered on March 11 — more than a week before the album dropped on March 19.

During “20/20′s” debut week, the lowest advertised price for the album at a national retailer was $7 — both Walmart and Amazon.com were selling the physical CD for that price. Target promoted its exclusive version for $9.99. iTunes and its main competitor, Amazon MP3, sold the standard digital album for $10.99.

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Prime Minister Ali Zeidan and his officials appear to have had a busy first day today at the Arab League Summit in the Qatari capital Doha, with League members calling for other Arab countries to cooperate with the Libyan government in the recovery of looted funds and the extradition of those accused of wrong doing during the Qaddafi regime.

Though much of the day was focused on Syria and the assumption of that country’s League seat by the Syrian opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib,  the meeting also found time to affirm that it supported Libyan government efforts to achieve national reconciliation, to build state institutions and to reverse the economic, social and humanitarian damage caused in the Qaddafi years.

Members also upheld Libya’s sovereignty, independence and integrity and rejected any form of foreign interference in its internal affairs, with the intent of destabilising the country.

On the sidelines of the summit, Libya officials reportedly had a series of meetings with other delegations, including tripartite talks with Egypt and Sudan, in which it was agreed that more work would be done on security and economic cooperation.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the closing day of the summit will see a session devoted to the machinery of the Arab League itself.  At Sunday’s preliminary meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Doha, Libya’s Mohamed Abdulaziz said that the League was in urgent need of reform and modernisation. His argument, reportedly shared by a number of other member states, is that the organisation must review its structures and procedures, so that it can respond effectively and nimbly to the political, economic and social challenges that face the Arab world.

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A major search is under way this evening following a mass break out from the prison in Sebha, during which one escapee was shot dead.

A security official reportedly told Associated Press that early today, 50 inmates had broken out following a riot at the jail in protest at their conditions. Doors had been smashed down and fires started. The mass escape occurred as officials tried to restore order.

Initially guards are said to have fired over the heads of the escapers but one prisoner was killed and two others wounded. Nine other absconders were quickly rounded up. The search has continued today for the remaining 36.

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US President Barack Obama has appointed a new ambassador to Libya. She is Deborah K. Jones. She is the first US ambassador since Chris Stevens was killed in Benghazi, along with three other diplomatic staff, on 11 September 2012. Since then the US embassy has been under temporary Chargés d’Affaires, first Laurence Pope and since the beginning of the year William Roebuck.

Jones’ appointment has not officially been announced by the US, although a source at the Libya Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that it had approved the appointment.

It is expected to be formally announced later today, when US Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Prime Minister Ali Zeidan who is visiting the US at present.

From New Mexico, Jones joined the U.S. Department of State in 1982. She speaks Arabic, having studied it the Foreign Service Institute in Roslyn, Virginia and at the State Department’s Field School in Tunisia. She also speaks French and Spanish.

She was US ambassador to Kuwait between 2008 and 2011. Earlier she served for two years as the State Departments’ Country Director of the Office of Arabian Peninsula and Iran Affairs. She then became Desk Officer for Jordan and worked in the State Department’s Operations Center and on its Board of Examiners until 2005. From August 2005 to 2007, she served as Principal Officer at the US Consulate-General in Istanbul. She has also worked in Abu Dhabi, where her husband Richard G. Olson was ambassador from 2008 to 2011, as well as in Addis Ababa, Baghdad, Damascus and Buenos Aires.

Her husband is currently US ambassador to Pakistan.

Asked about the her reported appointment, Chuck Dittrich, executive director of the US-Libya Business Association, said “if true, she would be a very good choice. She has been a successful US Ambassador to Kuwait, as well as Deputy Chief of Mission in the UAE and Consul-General in Dubai and Istanbul. She has the depth and breadth of experience needed to guide this important bilateral relationship through a critical period. As Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, she has unique insight into the risks and great promise of the transition now occurring in Libya and her nomination would signal the Obama Administration’s commitment to maintaining a high level of engagement with Libya.”

The US embassy in Tripoli was not available for comment.

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Rihanna has canceled another stop on her tour because of the flu and laryngitis.

Her representative said the singer’s show in Baltimore on Tuesday (March 12) would be postponed. Rihanna canceled her Sunday show in Boston because she was sick. Her “Diamonds World Tour” launched in Buffalo, N.Y., on Friday.

Live Nation said in a statement that “Rihanna is still recovering.” The concert promoter said fans “are instructed to retain their tickets pending rescheduling show date information.”

The next date on Rihanna’s tour is Thursday in Philadelphia. She’s supporting her seventh album, “Unapologetic,” which features the hits “Diamonds” and “Stay.”

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Never, ever forget that Miley Cyrus can’t be tamed. The 20-year-old pop singer has spent the past week (reportedly) signing on with a new manager, appearing in a Tiffany Foxx music video that also features Lil Kim, and blasting the haters on Twitter while contemplating “taking a break from social media” before her fourth studio album is released later this year.

On Tuesday (Mar. 5), E! reported that Cyrus had joined the roster of veteran manager Larry Rudolph, who worked closely with Britney Spears during her post-”Blackout” comeback. The move follows January’s news that Cyrus signed a deal with RCA Records, which will release the follow-up to 2010′s “Can’t Be Tamed.”

One day later, Cyrus lobbed a few shots on Twitter after teasing fans last week that she was listening to her new full-length “start to finish.”

“My new music is gonna shut everyone up,” Cyrus — who has worked with Pharrell Williams, Hit-Boy and Mike WiLL Made-It on the album — posted on Twitter. “Not discussing anything but my music from now on.” She also shot down rumors of trouble in paradise with fiancee Liam Hemsworth: “I am so sick of La. And sick of the lies that come with it. I didn’t call off my wedding. Taking a break from social media. #draining”

One thing that Cyrus is not taking a break from: randomly hanging out with rappers. The singer makes a cameo in the music video for Tiffany Foxx’s new single “Twisted,” which was released on Thursday. In the clip, Lil Kim and her hip-hop protege rap about being “Twisted, twisted, twisted/I can barely feel my faaaaace,” while Cyrus, sporting some feathered shades and golden hoop earrings, gleefully dances behind them.

The “Party in the U.S.A.” star is coming off the lackluster sales of “Can’t Be Tamed,” which has moved 344,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan and was the pop star’s last album with Hollywood Records. In a January interview, Cyrus revealed that she worked with Odd Future leader Tyler, The Creator on her still-untitled new album.

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At least 41 people were reported this evening, Monday, to have now died from drinking contaminated alcohol. One report put the figure at 46. The number of cases that have been admitted to Tripoli’s hospitals is also now put at 476. Victims are being treated at hospitals throughout the capital as well as outside it.

“It’s a disaster there,” reported one visitor to Tripoli Central Hospital.

Doctors there say that there are not enough beds in the emergency room to deal with the number of patients arriving.

“It’s the first experience of a disaster like this,” a doctor at the hospital told the Libya Herald. “We’re not trained to deal with a situation like this. The hospital does not have the capacity for such a large number coming.”

Patients, he said, were still arriving.

All the medical teams, doctors and nurses were working hard, he said. Some had not not slept for 24 hours. “Most of the patients are in very bad condition.

The problem was that that their kidneys had been damaged, he explained. Some are being treated at the hospital. Others who could be moved were being sent to the kidney clinic in Zahra, on the way to Zawia.

At least 13 victims were reported earlier this evening have been sent to Tunisia for treatment.

Worryingly, the doctor claimed that the mass poisoning was not from one batch of contaminated alcohol. “These poison cases are not coming just from one source. There is more than one source,” he stated.

If so, it suggests there could be many more cases in the next couple of days.  This is already Libya’s biggest case of mass poisoning.

Speaking earlier during the day when the death toll was put at 36 and with 370 cases admitted to hospital, Health Minister Nurideen Doghman said that a crisis committee had been formed and a state of emergency declared at all hospitals and health centres in the country.

Respirators had been bought to meet shortages in hospitals while dialysis centres were working continuously, he said.

He added that two girls as well an Algerian were among those who had died.

In a statement, the National Security Directorate in Tripoli, part of the Interior Ministry, said earlier today that an investigation into the mass poisoning had been launched by the Criminal Investigations Directorate.

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