In brief: Huge team rescues injured caver

BERLIN – After spending nearly two weeks underground, an injured German caver was hauled out of the country’s deepest cavern Thursday by a multinational rescue operation that involved more than 700 people.

Johann Westhauser, an experienced caver, had gone into the Riesending cave system in the Alps with two companions to carry out research and measurements. He was hit in the head during a June 8 rock fall while more than 1,000 yards underground.

After lengthy preparations, rescue teams five days later began the arduous task of hauling him up through a labyrinth of narrow passages and precipitous vertical shafts. Rescuers brought the 52-year-old the final 590 feet to the surface Thursday and immediately sent him to a hospital.

In all, 728 people from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Croatia participated in the operation, operation director Klaus Reindl told reporters in nearby Berchtesgaden.

A fit expert could climb from the accident site to the entrance in about 12 hours, but rescuers had to haul Westhauser on a stretcher. His condition has been described throughout as stable.

Judge tosses Zimmerman’s defamation suit against NBC

SANFORD, Fla. – Part of a lawsuit against NBC Universal that claims that the television network defamed George Zimmerman in a 2012 broadcast was thrown out by a Florida judge Thursday, putting the entire litigation in jeopardy.

Zimmerman’s attorneys waited too long under Florida statute to ask NBC to retract what it claimed were libelous statements in a March 19, 2012, broadcast, Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson ruled.

The statute requires five days written notice identifying potentially libelous statements. A letter claiming the network edited Zimmerman’s 911 call to police to make it sound like he was a racist was sent to network executives on Dec. 4, 2012.

Three other NBC broadcasts from March 20, 22 and 27, that included the reference are still in question, but the judge said she had to do more homework on the issues before making a final decision.

The defamation case had been postponed pending the conclusion of Zimmerman’s murder trial in July 2012.