Astronomers have discovered the youngest known supernova in the Milky Way galaxy, still just a baby at 140 years old.

Before this, the youngest supernova in the Milky Way was thought to have occurred around 1680.

A supernova is the catastrophic explosion of a star that releases an extraordinary amount of energy, enough to outshine an entire galaxy.

This new baby supernova is located near the center of the galaxy and obscured by dense gas and dust, making it virtually impossible to see in optical light.

BEX, Switzerland -- A Swiss pilot strapped on a jet-powered wing and leaped from a plane Wednesday for the first public demonstration of the homemade device, turning figure eights and soaring high above the Alps.

Yves Rossy's performance in front of the world press capped five years of training and many more years of dreaming.

"This flight was absolutely excellent," the former fighter pilot and extreme sports enthusiast said after touching down on an airfield near the eastern shore of Lake Geneva.

Rossy, 48, had stepped out of the Swiss-built Pilatus Porter aircraft at 7,500 feet and unfolded the rigid eight-foot wings strapped to his back before jumping.

Passing from free fall to a gentle glide, Rossy then triggered four jet turbines and accelerated to 186 miles per hour, about 65 miles per hour faster than the typical falling skydiver.

A plane that flew at some distance beside him measured his speed.

The crowd on the mountaintop below gasped and cheered.

Rossy's mother, who was among the spectators, told journalists she felt no fear.

"He knows what he's doing," Paule Rossy said of her son, who now flies commercial planes for Swiss airlines.

Steering with his body, Rossy dived, turned and soared again, performing what appeared to be effortless loops from one side of the Rhone valley to the other. At times he rose 2,600 feet before descending again.

After one last wave to the crowd the rocket man tipped his wings, flipped onto his back and leveled out again, executing a perfect 360-degree roll.

"That was to impress the girls," he later admitted.

JERUSALEM -- President Bush put an optimistic face on fading hopes for Mideast peace Wednesday, declaring that Israel's 60-year triumph over war and tragedy shows democracy can succeed everywhere. But Bush's upbeat message was marred by rocket fire from Gaza and threats of heavy retaliation by Israel.

Intended as an occasion for celebrating Israel's birthday, Bush's visit instead brought bursts of fresh violence, ominous warnings and disputed claims that Israel plans to expand settlement activity in the West Bank, a development that could undermine peace talks with Palestinians. It appeared that all sides were vying for the president's attention.

Bush and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed the peace process and threats to Israel's security -- only to learn that a rocket fired from Gaza had hit a crowded shopping center in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. At least 14 people were wounded. Two militant groups, the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad and the Hamas-linked Popular Resistance Committees, claimed responsibility.

"What happened today is entirely intolerable and unacceptable," Olmert said at a conference where Bush was honored. "The government of Israel is committed to stopping it and we will take the necessary steps so that this will stop." The audience erupted in applause before he finished the sentence.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The U.S.-backed Cabinet on Wednesday reversed measures against the militant Hezbollah movement that set off Lebanon's worst violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

The decision was a major victory for the Iranian-allied Hezbollah and the latest sign that the Shiite militant group appeared to have gained the upper hand in the country's political power struggle after its fighters routed supporters of the government.

Seconds after the announcement, celebratory gunfire erupted south of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, but there was no immediate response from the movement's leaders to the government's decision.

LEGUTIANO, Spain -- Suspected Basque separatists bombed a village police barracks housing officers and their families on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding four. Spain's government described it as an attempted massacre.

In the first fatal attack blamed on the militant separatist group ETA in more than two months, the pre-dawn car bombing in the Basque village of Legutiano in northern Spain blew off part of the building's roof, raining down debris and trapping people inside.

ETA often phones in warnings before attacks, but there was no alert this time. The assailants used a large amount of explosives at the building with 29 people inside, including five children, some of them babies, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said.

The group "has failed in its attack because it had planned to cause a massacre, although it did not fail completely because it killed an innocent person who was just doing his job," he said after visiting the barracks in Legutiano, a village of 1,500 near the regional capital, Vitoria.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called the attack "cowardly, despicable and criminal."