The daughter of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has dropped her request for asylum in the US, a government official says.

The older daughter of former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet was detained today on arrival in Washington after failing to obey a summons by a Chilean judge who indicted her on tax evasion charges, the government reported.

A powerful earthquake rattled Chile's remote northern Andes region near the Bolivian and Peruvian borders, killing at least eight people and causing widespread damage in several mountain villages.