RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina's highest court on Friday left intact a murder conviction that a lower appeals court had thrown out on the grounds that a jury shake-up during deliberations violated the defendant's rights and required a new trial.

By a 5-2 decision, the state Supreme Court reversed last year's decision of a state Court of Appeals panel that had sided with Eric Ramond Chambers, who has been serving a sentence of life in prison without parole.

The state constitution says no one can be convicted of a crime except by “the unanimous verdict of a jury in open court” that state justices have declared in the past repeatedly must be composed of 12 people.

A 2021 state law says an alternate juror can be substituted for one of the 12 after deliberations begin as long as the judge instructs the amended jury to begin deliberations anew. The judge at Chambers' 2022 trial did just that when an alternate juror joined deliberations because an original juror couldn’t continue the next day due to a medical appointment.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Rescue efforts are underway in South Africa to bring 260 workers trapped in a gold mine for a day back to the surface, the Sibanye Stillwater mining company said on Friday.

According to the company, an initial investigation showed that a sub-shaft rock winder skip door opened at the loading point and caused some damage to the mineshaft at the Kloof mine, west of Johannesburg.

“Following a detailed risk assessment, it was decided that employees should remain at the sub-shaft station until it is safe to proceed to the surface, in order to avoid walking long distances at this time,” the company said in a statement.

The National Union of Mineworkers, which represents workers at the Kloof mine, said the miners have been trapped for almost 24 hours, with the company repeatedly changing the estimated time for them to return to the surface.