One of the most powerful men in Afghanistan was assassinated this morning when Ahmed Wali Karzai, half-brother of President Hamid Karzai and provincial council chairman of Kandahar, was shot dead in his home by a police commander who was a close family associate. The assassin, Sardar Mohammed was killed by Karzai's security detail. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the death almost immediately, though those claims could not be verified.

Almost five hundred Taliban militants have escaped from the main prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Insurgents say they spent months digging a tunnel into the jail which through which almost a third of the prison population escaped. This includes about a hundred Taliban commanders. One escapee said it took him half an hour to crawl to freedom. Afghan politician and former MP, Daoud Sultanzai says that this "shows the fragile state of affairs of our security apparatus" in Afghanistan.

After weeks of international pressure, Afghanistan announced that it will now hold a run-off presidential election. But the November 7 date gives the country less than three weeks to organize the nationwide vote. We look at the challenges the country will face to hold another election in such a short time, and what it will mean for incumbent President Hamid Karzai and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, with Christine Fair, professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University. Fair is also a former election monitor in Afghanistan. We also talk to Emal Pasarly, deputy head of the Pashtu Service at the BBC; and from Afghanistan, Daoud Sultanzoy, an Independent Member of Parliament for Ghazni Province, in Eastern Afghanistan.