Poles began voting Sunday in a general election expected to end eight years of centrist government, with surveys showing the euroskeptic conservatives firmly ahead after running a campaign of anti-refugee rhetoric and welfare promises.

The opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party led by controversial ex-premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski commands an 8-to-12 point poll lead over the liberal, pro-European Civic Platform (PO) of Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz. Analysts say the PiS could even end up governing alone.

South Korea fired warning shots at one of the North's patrol boats as it strayed across the border, Seoul's defense ministry said, raising tensions while a rare reunion for families separated by the peninsula's 1950-53 war was underway.

The South's navy were launching a crackdown on Chinese fishing boats illegally operating off the country's western coast Saturday when it spotted the patrol vessel and fired five warning shots.

At least 12 people were injured in a scuffle between Turks and ethnic Kurds as hundreds of Turkish citizens gathered Sunday at their embassy in Tokyo to vote in a general election, reports said.

TV footage showed police breaking up the fight outside the mission as voting for the November 1 election began early in the Japanese capital.

European Union and Balkan leaders hold emergency talks on Europe's refugee crisis on Sunday amid threats from three frontline states to close their borders if northern EU countries stop accepting migrants.

The mini-summit called by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, groups the heads of ten EU nations including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, plus the leaders of Albania, Serbia and Macedonia.

Draped in a bandolier of shotgun cartridges, an Afghan cafe owner was forced to cobble together a militia of neighborhood fruit vendors and vegetable hawkers when the Taliban threatened his city, demonstrating an alarming new push into urban areas.

Emboldened by their recent three-day occupation of Kunduz, the first Afghan city to fall to the Taliban since their ouster from power in 2001, insurgents have made brazen attempts to overrun several other provincial centers, from Ghazni in the south to Maimana in the north.

Since African nations won independence, many leaders have tried, often successfully, to stay in power by amending their constitutions to change the cap set on presidential mandates.

The latest example is veteran Congo ruler Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has called a referendum on changes to the constitution that would make him eligible to contest elections next year, extending his three-decade stay in power.

People in the Republic of Congo began voting in a referendum Sunday on whether longtime President Denis Sassou Nguesso can seek a third term in office that has sparked clashes in the oil-producing country.

Polling booths were due to open at 7:00 am (0600 GMT) for the ballot on whether to amend the constitution to allow Sassou Nguesso, 71, to extend his grip on power that began more than three decades ago.

A speeding car crashed into a crowd watching a parade in Oklahoma on Saturday, killing four people, including a two-year-old boy.

The driver, a 25-year-old woman identified by police as Adacia Avery Chambers, was arrested for driving under the influence after the crash at an Oklahoma State University homecoming parade.

A comedian with no political experience looks poised to become Guatemala's next president when the country votes Sunday in a runoff election, amid the fallout of a massive corruption scandal.

Jimmy Morales, a comic actor famous for playing a country bumpkin who nearly becomes president, heads into the vote with a huge lead -- 68 percent to 32 percent for former first lady Sandra Torres, according to the final opinion poll.

A look at three key elements in play as Argentina elects its next president Sunday:

- 2001 crisis, 'vulture funds' -