Voting for parliamentary elections in Afghanistan’s second city has been postponed after a key security official was assassinated and the country braced for widespread insurgent violence on polling day.

Taliban commanders on Friday tried to further disrupt the election by issuing a nationwide demand for people to remain at home rather than head to the polls.

The vote is seen as a test of president Ashraf Ghani’s grip on the country after a grim year of soaring casualties among his forces and civilians and further encroachment by a buoyant Taliban.

Dr Ghani’s weary international backers, particularly Donald Trump, are desperate for signs of stability and progress after 17-years of pouring troops and money into the country.

Yet preparations were dealt a severe blow on Thursday when Kandahar’s powerful police chief, Gen Abdul Raziq, was shot dead in an insider attack claimed by the Taliban.

Gen Raziq had been a bastion against Taliban encroachment in the region with a ruthless campaign against the insurgents which had largely stabilised Kandahar and made him the most powerful government figure in southern Afghanistan.

The attack at a meeting with US commander, Gen Scott Miller, killed the local intelligence chief and critically wounded the provincial governor, wiping out the local leadership at a stroke.

Kandahar, once considered the stronghold of the Taliban movement, was on edge the day after the attack, as funerals were held and officials decided to postpone voting for a week.

The Taliban have vowed to disrupt an election they declare a sham and its military council issued a statement warning voters that “participation in this process is aiding the invaders”. It ordered Afghans to “remain indoors and desist from bringing out any means of transport”. A bloody or badly flawed election is predicted to strengthen the Taliban’s hand in fledgling talks to find a political settlement to the conflict.

More than nine million Afghans are registered to vote in what is only the third parliamentary poll since the Taliban were ousted after the 9/11 attacks.

Around 2,500 candidates are standing for 249 seats in a parliament which has in the past decade gained a reputation for graft and greed.

This year’s polls have already been delayed since 2015 because of rifts within Dr Ghani’s government and rows how to clean up the voting system.

The vote sees a new generation of election hopefuls, many younger and better educated than previous candidates, take on an old guard frequently tainted with accusations of corruption or involvement in the bloodshed of the 1990s civil war.

But the new generation also contains a raft of candidates whose fathers were formerly some of the country’s most prominent Mujahideen warlords of the 1990s, and who have been towering figures of Afghan life for decades.

This year’s voting lists include children of notorious leaders including Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Uzbek strongman Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum, and the Herat powerbroker Ismail Khan.

Jamaluddin Hekmatyar, whose father is remembered for indiscriminately bombarding Kabul as he squabbled with his former comrades in the 1990s, is standing as a member of his father’s Hezb-e Islami party.

The 42-year-old told the Telegraph he had not gained his candidacy through nepotism and wanted to “represent the people and fight for their rights”.

“I have learned from my father to fight for our values, each nation has the right to be independent and we must fight for a good future, no matter how long that fight would be but we should resist.”

He said it was not for him to answer for the deeds of the Mujahideen commanders.

“I think it’s not a good analysis if we say only Mujahideen leaders committed mistakes here, we should note foreigners role in Afghanistan too.”

The possible rise of children whose fathers presided over the destruction of the 1990s is eyed warily by many Afghans.

“There will be no deference between the Mujahideen leaders and their children,” said one Herat resident who lost two uncles during the barbarity of the 1990s, “they are just a shadow of their dads”.

“Mujahideen leaders want to rule their policies through their children. They are all educated in the West by the money that their dads received by selling the blood of innocent Afghans.”

At least 100 members of the migrant caravan travelling through Mexico in an attempt to reach the United States have been kidnapped by the Zetas cartel, according to human rights officials in the country.

Fleeing gang violence and threats back home in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, thousands of the migrants travelling en masse reached Mexico City on Monday and Tuesday.

But reports have emerged that a number of members, including children, have gone missing from the group. They are suspected of having fallen prey to criminal gangs, who abduct migrants in order to extort their family members. 

Human rights activists and officials in the southern states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, across which the massive group of Central American migrants have trekked over the last few weeks, say that at least 100 were kidnapped in the state of Puebla and allegedly handed over to the Zetas gang.

Arturo Peimbert, the human rights ombudsman in Oaxaca, told local media that the migrants were offered rides by fruit trucks, which they took despite warnings not to, and after getting onto the trucks found themselves locked in.

“The testimonies I have heard [of those who managed to escape] was that many of those migrants were handed over to organised crime near the Federal Police base in Puebla," Mr Peimbert related.

The ombudsman said that promises from the state government of Veracruz to provide transport to the migrants to get them to Mexico City were later retracted, creating a sense of desperation among many in the group.

Numbering more than 4,000 now, the Central Americans have been trekking steadily from their home countries in hot, unsanitary conditions in an attempt to reach Mexico’s shared border with the United States and ask for asylum.

In Mexico City, they have been given shelter and other humanitarian help by the city government.

For years, organised crime has preyed on migrants passing through Mexico, from taxing them to use established routes to kidnapping them and imprisoning them in safehouses.

They then ring their relatives either at home or those already living in the US to demand payment in return for their release.

The size of the group of migrants currently passing through Mexico has brought renewed attention and interest to the plight of those fleeing violence and gangs back home.

Donald Trump, the US president, has ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric as the migrant groups approaches the US border.

This week, he told the migrants to “turn back now, because you’re not getting in,” and has pledged to send some 15,000 extra troops to the border to protect Americans.

One of America’s most polarised midterm election battles, which could produce the first ever black female governor of a US state, has descended into angry accusations of race-based voter suppression and dirty tricks.

Stacey Abrams, the Democrat candidate in Georgia, is taking on Brian Kemp, one of the most conservative Republican candidates in the country, and polls have the contest on a knife-edge.

Mr Kemp, whose campaign pledges to round up illegal immigrants in the back of his pick-up truck, is also Georgia’s current secretary of state, its chief election officer in charge of voter registration.  

With election day looming a total of 53,000 people, around 70 per cent of them black, have had…

Yemen is on the verge of the “worst famine in a century”, the United Nations has warned.

As many as 13 million civilians are at risk of dying from the lack of food in the war-torn country in the next three months, according to Lisa Grande, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen.

“I think many of us felt as we went into the 21st century that is was unthinkable that we could see a famine like saw in Ethiopia, that we saw in Bengal, that we saw in parts of the Soviet Union, that was just unacceptable,” said Ms Grande.

“Many of us had the confidence that that would never happen again and yet the reality is that in Yemen that is precisely what we are looking at.”

Yemen has been in the grip of a civil war for three years after Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, seized much of the country.

Saudi Arabia, which backs the government, has imposed a blockade on the main Houthi-controlled port, restricting the amount of food and other aid allowed into the country.

The warning came as UN and humanitarian workers condemned an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemen’s Shia Houthi rebels that reportedly killed at least 15 civilians near the port city of Hodeida.

Video footage released by the Houthis showed a mangled minibus littered with groceries and a woman’s hand bag, with rebel officials saying a day earlier that the airstrike in the Jebel Ras area had also wounded 20 others.

The Houthis said that five members of the same family were killed in the vehicle, adding that many women and children were among the casualties.

Eyewitnesses who declined to be named for fear of their safety said that the attack appeared to target a rebel checkpoint in the area.

"The United Nations agencies working in Yemen unequivocally condemn the attack on civilians and extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims," said said Ms Grande.

"Under international humanitarian law, parties to the conflict are obliged to respect the principles of precaution, proportionality and distinction," said Ms Grande. "Belligerents must do everything possible to protect civilians – not hurt, maim, injure or kill them," she added.

Hodeida, with its key port installations that bring in UN and other humanitarian aid, has become the centre of Yemen’s conflict, with ground troops allied to the coalition struggling to drive out the rebels controlling it.

The UN in Yemen says that since June, more than 170 people have been killed and at least 1,700 have been injured in Hodeida province, with over 425,000 people forced to flee their homes.

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A British academic arrested in the UAE on suspicion of spying is facing at least another month in solitary confinement while an Abu Dhabi court re-examines the evidence against him. 

Matthew Hedges, 31, was arrested at Dubai airport in May on allegations of spying for a foreign state and has been held at undisclosed prison location in the UAE since then.

He appeared in court on Wednesday, where his lawyer insisted on his innocence and asked the judge to re-examine the evidence against him before delivering a verdict. 

The judge agreed and scheduled another hearing for November 21. By then, Mr Hedges will have been held in solitary confinement for more than six months. 

“Given the way the UAE have treated Matt since they detained him with no explanation, I did not have high hopes that Matt, an innocent man, would be granted anything close to a fair trial," said Daniela Tejada, Mr Hedges’ wife. 

“Although I welcome this decision to review the evidence, it pains me to think that by his next court hearing, Matt will have been detained for over six months for carrying out legitimate academic research.”

The case has strained the close relationship between the UK and the UAE, and Abu Dhabi appears to have been stung by the widespread media coverage of his detention. 

The UAE foreign ministry put out a statement insisting that “Mr Hedges’ welfare has been appropriately supported and maintained throughout the process”. 

The ministry said that he was receiving regular visits from family and British embassy officials and has been allowed access to “books and reading material of his choice”. 

Ms Tajeda disputed those claims, saying that he had been allowed only two visits from family in five months as well as “two to five minute monitored random phone calls”. 

She said British embassy officials had only been allowed to visit him twice for a total of 35 minutes since May 5. 

Ms Tajeda also said that UAE prison officials had only recently given Mr Hedges a set of books which she sent to him in July. 

“I know how they are keeping him and their statement is false. They know this, I know this and so does the Foreign Office,” Ms Tajeda said. 

A spokeswoman for the family also that Mr Hedges had only been given a medical assessment outside prison after his case became public. External doctors changed a prescription for medicine  given to him by prison doctors. 

Mr Hedges had been in the UAE completing research for his PhD at Durham University. He was studying the UAE’s foreign policy and security strategy. 

The UAE has not made public the evidence against him but it is believed that authorities grew suspicious about questions he was asking his interview subjects. 

"Matt is an innocent man. He was in the UAE to finish his PhD. The evidence will undoubtedly show this,” his wife said. 

There was no immediate comment from the Foreign Office.  British authorities have raised Mr Hedges’ case with the UAE several times.

“The UAE invests considerable time and money painting itself as a progressive and tolerant country, but Hedges’ case shows the face of an autocratic government with a fundamental lack of respect for the rule of law,” Human Rights Watch deputy Middle East director, Michael Page, said in a statement this week.

Jamal Khashoggi’s words could not be more powerful or more poignant.

In a column published by the Washington Post on Wednesday night, the missing Saudi journalist says Arab governments have been given free rein by the international community to silence the media at an accelerating rate, in a piece that apparently foreshadowed his own fate.

The writer has not been seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul a fortnight ago.

Turkish officials say they have obtained audio recordings that suggest he was tortured and killed although the government of Saudi Arabia insists it does not know what happened to the prominent dissident.

In a note published with the column, Karen Attiah, global opinions editor at The Washington Post, said the piece  perfectly captured Khashoggi’s commitment to freedom in the Arab world: "A freedom he apparently gave his life for."

She said she received it from his translator a day after he disappeared.

“The Post held off publishing it because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he and I could edit it together,” she wrote.

“Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen. This is the last piece of his I will edit for The Post.”

In his piece, Khashoggi describes how the optimism of the Arab Spring in 2011 was quickly dashed, replaced by the Middle East’s version of the Iron Curtain, imposed by domestic forces as they grappled for power.

The rest of the world has done little as journalists were arrested or newspapers silenced, he continues.

“Instead, these actions may trigger condemnation quickly followed by silence,” he writes.

“As a result, Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate.”

He calls for a modern form of the old transnational media – something akin to Radio Free Europe that began broadcasting during the Cold War – to provide a platform for Arab voices.

“We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education,” he writes. “Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face." 

CNN correspondent Jim Acosta was denied entry to the White House on Wednesday evening following a heated row with President Donald Trump, who called him a "rude, terrible person" during a press conference. 

Mr Acosta, CNN’s chief White House correspondent, said he was informed by Secret Service officers that he could not enter for his scheduled 8pm broadcast.

Officials later confirmed that his credentials had been revoked.

The episode will reignite fears that Mr Trump has scant regard for press freedom and is intent on limiting space for critical coverage.

Hours earlier Mr Acosta found himself in the president’s line of fire during a news conference called to trumpet Republican success in Tuesday’s midterm elections, but which quickly turned hostile when Mr Trump opened the floor to questions. 

Mr Acosta asked the president about his reference to migrants travelling towards America as an "invasion". 

"Honestly, I think you should let me run the country and you run CNN," Mr Trump snapped, adding "and if you did it well, you’re ratings would be much better".

Mr Acosta persevered in his attempt to question the president, but Mr Trump told him: "That’s enough. Put down the mic."

"You are a rude terrible person," he added. "The way you treat [White House press secretary] Sarah Huckabee is horrible… You shouldn’t treat people that way."

"When you report fake news…you are an enemy of the people," he said, as an intern tried to take the microphone from the reporter.

The president also berated NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander, telling him "I’m not a big fan of yours either". 

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House press secretary, confirmed that Mr Acosta was no longer permitted entry.

“As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice,” she said. 

Mr Trump has repeatedly lambasted what he calls the "fake news media", particularly CNN, during the course of his presidency.

The news network was sharply critical of the president’s rhetoric and attacks on the media after a number of pipe bombs were delivered to its newsroom last month. 

During Wednesday’s press conference Mr Trump was also rebuked for telling another reporter he could not understand her accent.

Meanwhile an African American reporter for PBS who asked Mr Trump whether his embrace of ‘nationalism’ is ‘white nationalism’ was told her question was "racist" and "insulting". 

"Why do I have my highest poll numbers ever with African Americans?" he responded to Yamiche Alcindor. "That’s such a racist question. It’s insulting to me."