Authorities take measures after the incident at the Capitol Hill in Washington

A woman has been shot dead after she led police officers on a car chase that ended in gunfire near the US Capitol in Washington.

Witnesses said shots rang out after the woman driving a black Toyota Infiniti attempted to smash through a barricade close to the White House.

The woman then fled, and was pursued by police who caught up with her near the Capitol Building.

Video footage showed officers with guns drawn attempting to get the driver out of the vehicle on the west side of the Capitol Building before she then flees again, with officers in chase.

National Indian Congress Party: a victim of the criminalisation of politics or a patron of it?

For two decades, Lalu Prasad Yadav was a giant on India’s political stage. He ran a state of 100 million people, he took charge of the country’s massive rail network and his party was a crucial prop for the shaky coalition government in New Delhi.

Yadav managed all this despite a constant whiff of corruption around him. Indeed, he liked to thumb his nose at the law, riding triumphantly on the back of an elephant after a brief spell behind bars in 1997 as a crowd of admirers cheered.
Last week, a court sentenced Yadav to five years in prison for his part in a multi-million-dollar embezzlement case.