A federal judge ordered the state of Tennessee on Friday to recognize the marriages of three same-sex couples while their lawsuit against the state works its way through the court system.

U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger issued the preliminary injunction barring the state from enforcing laws prohibiting recognition of their marriages.

In her written memorandum, Trauger makes clear that her order is only temporary and only applies to the three same-sex couples. A preliminary injunction can only be granted in cases the judge believes the plaintiff will likely win.

"It's the first nail in the coffin of discriminating against same-sex married couples in Tennessee," said Abby Rubenfeld, one of the attorneys for the same-sex couples. "Every single court that has considered these same issues has ruled the same way."

A spokesman for Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said in an email that Trauger's decision is still being reviewed by officials.

"The governor is disappointed that the court has stepped in when Tennesseans have voted clearly on this issue," David Smith said. "Beyond that it's inappropriate to comment due to the continuing litigation."

In Tennessee, marriage between partners of the same gender is prohibited by state law and by a constitutional amendment approved in 2006.

An inmate has pleaded guilty to murder in the stabbing death of a guard at a federal prison in Central California.

The U.S Attorney's Office says 48-year-old James Ninete Leon Guerrero, of Guam, entered the plea on Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Guerrero held Officer Jose Rivera down at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater in 2008 as another inmate, Jose Cabrera Sablan, stabbed him more than 20 times with an eight-inch shank. The 22-year-old Rivera - a U.S. Navy veteran - was doing a daily headcount when he was attacked.

Guerrero was serving a life prison sentence at the time in connection with an armed bank robbery. Prosecutors say under a plea agreement, he will receive another life term. Sablan is scheduled to go on trial in April.

Distant relatives of England's King Richard III are launching their High Court battle over where to rebury the 15th-century monarch's remains.

The remains of Richard — who was killed in battle in 1485 — were found in a Leicester parking lot.

The government has given Leicester Cathedral in central England permission to rebury the king, but his relatives want him buried in the northern England city of York.

The relatives — under the name the Plantagenet Alliance — are bringing legal action that begins Thursday at the High Court against the government and the University of Leicester.

They claim that the government did not consult widely enough — or consider the wishes of Richard or his descendant — on where the monarch should be reburied.

Coast Guard officials in New Orleans say a petty officer has been convicted and sentenced on charges involving sexual assault and possession of child pornography.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher C. Bush's court martial was held in Norfolk, Va.

A Coast Guard news release said the 28-year-old Bush was convicted Friday on four violations of a Uniform Code of Military Justice article dealing with rape and sexual assault and one involving child pornography.

The crimes involved a junior Coast Guard woman and a civilian woman. They happened between January 2010 and May 2013 while Bush was stationed at a unit in New Orleans. The Coast Guard said it was not releasing the name of the unit to protect the privacy of the victims.

Three Northern California men are each facing up to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that they damaged federal conservation land while allegedly growing marijuana.

Prosecutors say Chou Vang, Vang Pao Yang and Pao Vang, all of Eureka, each entered their pleas in federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday to one count of willful injury to federal property.

The men were accused of clearing away trees and vegetation, using fertilizers, and failing to properly dispose of trash while growing pot in the summer of 2012 in the King Range National Conservation Area along California's Lost Coast. The area provides habitat for four federally-listed threatened species, including Chinook and Coho salmon.

As part of a plea deal, prosecutors say they dropped marijuana cultivation charges. The men are scheduled to be sentenced in July.

A federal jury found two men guilty Wednesday of economic espionage involving the theft and sale of a U.S. company’s technology to a competitor controlled by the Chinese government.

The jury returned the verdicts against Robert Maegerle and Walter Liew.

They were accused of stealing Delaware-based DuPont Co.’s method for making titanium oxide, a chemical that fetches $17 billion a year in sales worldwide and is used to whiten everything from cars to the middle of Oreo cookies.

A federal jury found two men guilty Wednesday of economic espionage involving the theft and sale of a U.S. company’s technology to a competitor controlled by the Chinese government.

Prosecutors said DuPont was unwilling to sell its method to China, so it was stolen and sent to a company called Pangang Group Co. Ltd., according to testimony during the diplomatically dicey proceedings. The jury heard six weeks of testimony.

Prosecutors alleged that Pangang’s factory is the only facility inside China known to be producing titanium oxide the DuPont way, which uses chlorination.