Earth's protective ozone layer is beginning to recover, largely because of the phase-out since the 1980s of certain chemicals used in refrigerants and aerosol cans, a U.N. scientific panel reported Wednesday in a rare piece of good news about the health of the planet.

Scientists said the development demonstrates that when the world comes together, it can counteract a brewing ecological crisis.

A strong solar flare is blasting its way to Earth, but the worst of its power looks like it will barely skim above the planet and not cause many problems.

It has been several years since Earth has had a solar storm of this size coming from sunspots smack in the middle of the sun, said Tom Berger, director of the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. The flare on the sun barely hits the "extreme" on forecasters' scale, but with its worst effects missing Earth it is only looking "potentially strong" at most when it arrives at Earth as a solar storm, he said.

Carrie Underwood, who recently announced she is pregnant, got emotional during an acceptance speech at the annual ACM Honors event after thanking family and friends.

Underwood, 31, received the Gene Weed Special Achievement Award on Tuesday night in Nashville, Tennessee. When she accepted the award, she said that she was misty eyed at the performances that evening.

Palestinian filmmaker Khalil Mozayen's latest work was already complexly layered — a movie within a movie about a director and screenwriter producing a film about an honor killing in the Gaza Strip.

Then the latest Gaza war burst in to add yet another layer: An Israeli airstrike leveled the 13-story apartment tower where Mozayen's office, studio and archive were located. So he filmed the mountain of rubble and used it for the final scene of his movie, "Sarah 2014."

Police in Michigan say they arrested a shoplifting suspect following her slow-speed getaway in a $1,200 motorized wheelchair shopping cart taken from a Wal-Mart.

The Muskegon Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1wgjeQT ) says police located 46-year-old Shirley Mason about 2 miles away, riding the cart with $600 in clothing.

Opening a new military front in the Middle East, President Barack Obama authorized U.S. airstrikes inside Syria for the first time Wednesday night, along with expanded strikes in Iraq as part of "a steady, relentless effort" to root out Islamic State extremists and their spreading reign of terror.

"We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are," Obama declared in a prime-time address to the nation from the White House. "This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven."

In Asia's bastion of Roman Catholic faith, images of Pope Francis are getting the pop star treatment.

A church-run radio station in the Philippines is distributing life-size cardboard cutouts of the pope to generate "papal fever" among selfie-loving Filipinos before the pope's visit in January.

Think of Tom Hardy and what likely first comes to mind is his stout physical presence: his muscled mixed-martial arts fighter in "Warrior" or his hulking Batman villain, Bane, in "The Dark Rises."

But Hardy is, first and foremost, a talker. As he's developed as an actor, it's become increasingly clear how much voice plays a central role for Hardy. His characters are a richly varied assortment of vocalization. His verbal virtuosity is especially on display in two films this year: the New York crime film "The Drop," which opens Friday, and the earlier-released "Locke," a drama almost entirely composed of Hardy talking on the phone while driving.

Real Madrid says Germany midfielder Sami Khedira has undergone an "arthroscopic revision" of his left knee.

The 27-year-old Khedira was already sidelined while recovering from a left hamstring injury.

A condo development in New York City's pricy SoHo neighborhood is charging for a parking spot as much as it would cost to buy a nice house in Dallas or Seattle — $1 million.

The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/ZfYihP ) reports the 10 underground spots at 42 Crosby St. will cost more per square foot than the apartments upstairs. The parking spots will run between $5,000 and $6,666 a square foot.