Last year, the Danish Navy thought a Somali boat was approaching the Ely Maersk, a Danish merchant vessel off the coast of Somalia, shot at it and arrested the occupants. They were brought to Denmark to face piracy charges. They were appointed counsel. The Danish Prosecutor For Special International Criminal Cases decided not to file charges and released the men back to Somalia.

The Danish counsel for the men has now sued for damages for unlawful detention and the destruction of their boat and property.

The Danish Navy's Esbern Snare has seized 200 suspected pirates, all of whom were later released. "Somali pirates are currently holding some 28 international vessels and 587 hostages."

The U.S. is going to turn over control of military operations in Libya to either a UK-France coalition or Nato, probably within days.

The Wall St. Journal says U.S. involvement in Libya show "the Obama doctrine" in action, and that it's consistent with what he said on the campaign trail in 2008. It also says it's not a position that sits well with many Republicans:

Facing off against then-fellow Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a debate for the Democratic primary, Mr. Obama said he didn't want to just end the war in Iraq. "I want to end the mind-set that got us into war in the first place," he said.

In contrast to his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who invaded Iraq in 2003 despite opposition from many allies and Democrats, Mr. Obama is taking pains to receive unambiguous legal authority through the United Nations, getting clear support from Arab states and then letting others—France and Britain —lead the military charge.

[More...]

U.S. Tomahawk missiles have landed in Libya. President Obama today said he has authorized "limited military action in Libya" and that "that action has now begun."

The first airstrikes will take out Gadhafi's air defenses in the western part of Libya, mostly concentrated around Tripoli and Misrata.

"Once we do that, that would open up the environment where we could enforce the no-fly zone throughout, from east to west of Libya," the official said.

The next phase will be "planes flying over Libyan airspace near Tripoli, and in the Mediterranean Sea near Benghazi. ." Also participating: The UK, Canada, France and Italy.

Obama says no ground troops will be going to Libya. On the strikes, he said today in Brazil:

This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought...We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy."

CIA contractor Ray Davis, accusing of shooting and killing 2 Pakistanis, has been released from jail. The U.S. paid the victims' families $2 plus million in "blood money." Davis is on a flight back to the U.S. More from Bloomberg News here.

Reports are conflicting about the latest explosion at a nuclear reactor plant in Japan today. Some say radiation levels are rising dangerously. Others say levels rose noticeably only inside the plant.

Things change quickly. Kyodo News Agency has more. And this ABC News reporter in Japan is updating frequently via Twitter. I'd rather read her twitter feed than ABC News which continues to bombard us with videos that play automatically when you click on a news article.

1 am MT: The Kyodo News Agency reports more than 2,000 people have died or are unaccounted for. In Minamisanriku, a town in Miyagi with 10,000 people, more than 5,000 people are unaccounted for. The police chief thinks the toll in Miyagi could exceed 10,000. Hundreds of bodies have been found under rubble. In one town hit by the Tsunami, the town hall and a nursing home were swept out to sea. Neither the mayor nor the elderly patients have been heard from.

20,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed and more than 300,000 in six perfectures have been evacuated. The power outages may last weeks. The LA Times has some descriptive photos of the destruction here. For this family, it's like watching a scene from that new show Waking Dead. What an awful shock. One day life is fine, the next day it's gone. These picture pretty well capture the extent of the property damage in that area.

At least 160 people have been tested for radiation exposure from the nuclear reactors. Six reactors have now failed or are in danger of failing.

Update: 2:45 a.m. MT: Evacuations ordered in Hawaii, see Donald's comments below. Here's a live news stream for night owls. The "hit time" is set for about 3:00 am Hawaii time. Coastal inundation zones are most at risk. If you are in one, it's time to evacuate now. The Mayor of Honolulu is on now and he sounds like everything is under control, all the agencies are working with each other -- including police, fireman planning, hospitals, hotels. "Don't believe the worst is going to happen, but prepare for the worst that could happen." He's very calm. They've prepared for the homeless, the animals at the zoo, etc.

The water system will be shut down on Maui around when the tsunami hits so everyone needs to get water. But things should get back to normal quickly.

A huge earthquake, 8.9 in magnitude, has hit Japan, triggering a massive tsunami.[More...]

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have now called on Gadhafi to leave Libya. From Hillary's statement:

We have always said that the Qadhafi government's future is a matter for the Libyan people to decide, and they have made themselves clear. When a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now. Moammar Gadhafi has lost the confidence of his people and he should go without further bloodshed and violence. The Libyan people deserve a government that is responsive to their aspirations and that protects their universally recognized human rights.

The U.S. has issued sanctions against Libya, including revoking visas of its leaders and family members and freezing assets. The U.N. Security Council is also considering sanctions.

The judge presiding over the case of Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange's extradition to Sweden has ruled he can be extradited.

The Judge ruled Assange can get a fair trial in Sweden and that the extradition request and warrant were valid. He rejected Assange's claim that he also could be extradited to the U.S. or Guantanamo and said there was no evidence Assange faced torture or extradition if that happened.

Assange can appeal the decision.

Sad news from the Indian Ocean. The pirates that seized the Quest on Friday and took four Americans hostage, owners Scott and Jean Adams and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, have shot and killed all four.

The US central command said that negotiations were under way with the pirates when the US forces heard gunfire, boarded the yacht and found the four American bodies.

"As they responded to the gunfire, reaching and boarding the Quest, the forces discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors," general James Mattis of US central command said in a statement.

The U.S. had sent four navy warships, including an aircraft carrier, to the scene. After boarding the ship, two pirates were killed and 15 have been detained. The Adams had been sailing around the world on the ship since 2004. What a tragic way for their journey to end.

The New York Times has more details here, and says 13 pirates have been detained. Some background on Somali pirates is here and here.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced he is resigning and handing power to the military. A spokesman said:

"In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate, citizens, during these very difficult circumstances Egypt is going through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to step down from the office of president of the republic and has charged the high council of the armed forces to administer the affairs of the country," he said.

"May God help everybody."

Defence Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi is the top military commander. As for Mubarak, he has left Cairo for his home in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The BBC says Hosni Mubarak has scheduled a news conference. It is expected he will give up his power now -- or at least, as one official tells BBC, he won't be President on Friday.

More here.

Al Jazeera has this profile of Omar Suleiman.