Washington

Scientists say asteroid caused rainfall of glass

Nearly 3.5 billion years ago, when the Earth was just a billion years old, a huge asteroid slammed into the young planet and produced a global rain of glass droplets and towering tidal waves that raced around the world, according to an analysis of ancient rocks.

Researchers at Stanford University and Louisiana State University say samples collected from deposits in South Africa and Australia show a rock about 12 miles wide smashed into Earth and sent into the atmosphere millions of tons of dust and vaporized rock.

The rock samples are the oldest known evidence of an asteroid impact on Earth, said Donald R. Lowe, a researcher at Stanford University and senior author of the study appearing today in the journal Science.

Atlanta

West Nile virus spreads to Montana, New Mexico

The number of Americans who have contracted West Nile virus this year approached 300 Thursday as the mosquito-borne virus extended its reach to Montana and New Mexico.

The disease has now killed at least 14 people and infected animals or humans in all but seven of the lower 48 states. The death toll will rise if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm two fatal cases of West Nile reported Thursday in Georgia.

New York

Editor killed in fall

A New York Times business editor died Thursday after falling from a top floor of the newspaper’s headquarters near Times Square in an apparent suicide, police said.

The official cause of Allen R. Myerson’s death is to be determined after an investigation, authorities said.

A note was discovered, but it gave no indication as to why the 47-year-old may have killed himself, investigators said.