In the World

MEXICO CITY - The plane carrying Mexican American music superstar Jenni Rivera plunged almost vertically from more than 28,000 feet and hit the ground in a nose-dive at a speed that may have exceeded 600 m.p.h., Mexico's top transportation official said Tuesday.

In the first detailed account of the moments leading up to the crash that killed Rivera and six other people, Secretary of Communications and Transportation Gerardo Ruiz Esparza told Radio Formula that the plane hit the ground 1.2 miles from where it began falling, meaning it plummeted at a nearly 45-degree angle.

Mexican authorities were performing DNA tests Tuesday on remains believed to belong to Rivera and the others killed when her plane went down in northern Mexico early Sunday morning.

Investigators said it would take days to piece together the wreckage of the plane and find out why it went down. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to help investigate the crash of the Learjet 25, which disintegrated on impact in northern Mexico.

- AP

KINGSTON, Jamaica - The leader of the Cayman Islands government was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of theft, abuse of office, and breach of trust in the famed Caribbean tax haven.

Premier McKeeva Bush, 57, was detained Tuesday morning at his home in the West Bay section of Grand Cayman island by officers from the financial unit of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, police spokeswoman Janet Dougall said.

By evening, Bush had been released on overnight bail after a series of interviews. Bush was detained "in connection with a number of ongoing police investigations," Dougall said in a statement. She said the probes involve suspected theft related to misuse of a government credit card and breach of trust, abuse of office, and conflict of interest for the alleged importation of unspecified explosive substances without valid permits. - AP

GUATEMALA CITY - A lawyer for John McAfee said Tuesday that a judge has ordered the software company founder released from a Guatemalan detention center where he has been fighting deportation.

Lawyer Telesforo Guerra said the judge notified him verbally of the ruling, but that it may take a day for formal written notification to win McAfee's release. Judge Judith Secaida did not return phone calls on Tuesday seeking to confirm the ruling.

Guerra said Secaida ruled McAfee's detention illegal, ordered him released, and gave him 10 days to put his immigration situation in order. Police in neighboring Belize want to question McAfee in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate. - AP