'Champion of human rights': Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright dies

Madeleine Albright has died aged 85 (Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP)

Madeleine Albright, the first female US secretary of state, has died of cancer aged 85, her family said.

President Bill Clinton chose Ms Albright as America’s top diplomat in 1996 and she served in that capacity for the last four years of the Clinton administration.