A federal judge has brought Microsoft one step closer to seizing control of 276 domains controlled by the Waledac botnet.

A magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia decided Sept. 3 to recommend that a default judgment be granted in Microsoft's favor. The defendants in the case were given 14 days to object; if they do not, the judgment will be final.

“In this case, Microsoft presented evidence to the court that although the defendants did not come forward, they were aware of the case and actively tried to retaliate, attempting to launch a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack against the law firm that filed the suit and even going so far as to threaten one of the researchers involved in the case,” according to Microsoft.

The legal action was the result of a joint investigation known as ‘Operation b49’ that also involved Symantec, Shadowserver Foundation, the University of Washington and others. Once capable of sending out more than 1.5 billion spam messages a day, the number of unique infected IP addresses has continued to decline, going from 64,000 during the week of July 23 to 58,000 as of Aug. 30.

California's highest court on Wednesday refused to order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state's attorney general to appeal a federal ruling that overturned the state's gay marriage ban.

The state Supreme Court denied a conservative legal group's request to force the state officials to defend the voter-approved ban.

The court did not explain why it rejected the emergency petition filed by the Pacific Justice Institute. The institute had argued that the attorney general and governor were required to uphold all laws, including initiatives passed by voters.

Earlier Wednesday, lawyers for Attorney General Jerry Brown and Schwarzenegger filed letters with the court maintaining state officers have authority to choose which laws they challenge or defend in court.

"The governor, like any litigant, has complete discretion over his own litigation strategy, including whether or not to appeal an order," counsel Andrew Stroud wrote for Schwarzenegger. "Here, the governor exercised his discretion and decided not to file an appeal."

Both men have declined to appeal Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's Aug. 4 ruling that found the ban, known as Proposition 8, violated gay Californians' civil rights.

A federal appeals court struck down a city ban on tattoo parlors Thursday, ruling the artistic expression is entitled to free speech protection under the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Southern California city of Hermosa Beach to allow tattoo parlors to operate.

The city had argued the operations threaten public health and attract an unsavory clientele prone to crime.

Several state courts and federal trial courts have upheld similar bans in other cities across the country.

However, the ruling Thursday was the first by a federal appeals court, meaning such bans are now unconstitutional in the nine western states that must comply with 9th Circuit rulings.

Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, called the city's ban "substantially broader than necessary to achieve the city's significant health and safety interests and because it entirely forecloses a unique and important method of expression."

The court said the ban was an unconstitutional overreaction to health concerns that can be addressed through regulations to ensure sanitation.

The administration told a federal appeals court in Washington on Wednesday that the order by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth stops "funding for embryonic stem cell research in its tracks."

Lamberth rejected the administration's request to let funding continue while it pursues an appeal of his order.

Medical researchers value stem cells because they are master cells that can turn into any tissue of the body. Research eventually could lead to cures for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and other ailments.

A blind, self-taught activist lawyer who documented forced abortions and other abuses was released from a Chinese prison Thursday and promptly locked down in his rural village with no access to communication, a relative said.

Chen Guangcheng, 39, is a charismatic, inspirational figure for civil liberties lawyers who have fought to enforce the rights enshrined in China's Constitution but often breached by the authoritarian government and police. Chen was imprisoned in 2006, marking the start of a government crackdown on activist attorneys.

Chen was escorted to his village Thursday morning as family members were preparing to leave to meet him at the Linyi city prison, relative Yin Dongjiang said. The family has been under heavy surveillance in recent days and authorities cut off the mobile and landline phone service for several relatives, he said.

"There's a lot of people in the village right now and the family isn't allowed to leave their home," said Yin, whose sister is married to Chen's older brother.

Chen's brother used Yin's phone, which still worked, to send a message to lawyer Teng Biao saying Chen was at home and that all telephones had been cut. Yin said he had not seen Chen and did not know what his physical condition was after the four-year prison term.

Five men in plain clothes blocked the road into Chen's village with a van and six more came running after Associated Press journalists who tried to enter the community surrounded by cornfields. After a brief scuffle with the journalists, the men jumped into their van and chased the journalists' car at high speed as they left the area.