ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The latest on the continuing flow of refugees and other migrants into Europe. All times local:

9:40 p.m.

Mareman Azad of Afghanistan was among 1,000 protesters in Athens on International Migrants Day.

The demonstrators were protesting plans by Greece's left-wing government to start detaining migrants who are due to be deported. They filed past an open air Christmas concert Friday at Athens' main Syntagma Square as a choir sang "Silent Night."

Azad, who traveled to Greece from Turkey after leaving her home in Kabul, says she has been learning Greek while she waits for an opportunity to try and travel north.

She tells an AP journalist that "I've been here for two months. I want to go to northern Europe, to France."

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Refugees and migrants arrive on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to the Greek island of Lesbos, Frida …

Some 800,000 migrants and refugees have reached Greece from Turkey so far this year. Thousands are now stranded there by Macedonia's decision to limit which asylum-seekers it allows across the border.

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A volunteer hugs a child at the port of Skala Sykaminias after a rescue operation near the Greek isl …

9:10 p.m.

More than 1,000 stranded migrants and demonstrators from Greek left-wing and anarchist groups have marched to the Greek parliament and a European Union office in Athens, protesting Greek plans to resume the detention of migrants who are denied asylum in EU countries.

The migrants, mostly from North African countries, chanted "Open the borders!" during the march Friday that ended peacefully. The rally was held to celebrate International Migrants Day.

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Refugees and migrants arrive on a vessel of Frontex, European Border Protection Agency, after their …

Reversing an earlier policy, Greece's left-wing government on Monday announced it would soon start detaining migrants who are due to be deported.

Some 800,000 migrants and refugees have reached Greece from Turkey so far this year.

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5:25 p.m.

American actress and activist Susan Sarandon is visiting the Greek island of Lesbos, Europe's busiest transit point for refugees and migrants reaching the European Union.

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An Iraqi man disembarks from a dinghy on a beach after his trip with other refugees and migrants fro …

Sarandon traveled Friday to the island's northern shore and spoke to volunteer rescuers and migrants who traveled by dinghy from the nearby coast of Turkey.

Sarandon said she would spend the Christmas holidays on Lesbos to spend time with refugees, "getting their stories and hearing what they have to say so I can better explain to people back home what the situation is and hopefully learn."

Earlier this month, U.S. actor Mandy Patinkin, who stars in the popular television series "Homeland," also visited Lesbos.

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4:45 p.m.

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Iraqi refugees leave from a beach after their arrival with other migrants from the Turkish coast to …

The U.N. secretary-general is calling on the world to urgently tackle the global migration crisis by creating a "new global compact on human mobility."

Ban Ki-moon in a statement for International Migrants Day on Friday says 2015 has been marked by worrying developments in which "millions have been made into scapegoats and become the targets of xenophobic policies and alarmist rhetoric."

Ban notes that more than 5,000 people have died this year while trying to flee to safer places, and that "tens of thousands" have been exploited by human traffickers.

He again calls for countries to "expand safe channels for regular migration," including for family reunification, and better employment and education opportunities.

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1:10 p.m.

The International Organization for Migration says refugee and migrant arrivals by sea and land into Europe this year are expected to top the 1 million mark next week.

The Geneva-based agency says 990,761 people have arrived from Africa or the Middle East, with more than 800,000 people crossing from Turkey to Greece alone. More than half of those — or some 455,000 — are Syrians.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman said roughly 4,300 people arrived from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands on Wednesday. The agency now estimates the one-million mark will be reached by Tuesday. That would be over four times the total of about 240,000 crossings by land and sea into Europe last year.

The agency said daily arrivals continue in the thousands despite "ever colder temperatures and dangerous sea conditions."

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A pro-migrant demonstrator shouts slogans during a rally to support refugees and migrants in Athens, …

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12:15 p.m.

Sweden has approved checks of travel documents for people entering the Scandinavian country in a move to try to stem the influx of refugees.

As of Jan. 4, bus companies, ferry and train operators will be held responsible for checking identity papers of all travelers during a limited time period of up to six months. It was not immediately clear whether people would be turned away.

Sweden's Parliament passed the law Thursday, presented by the Social Democratic-led coalition with the backing of the opposition anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.

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A Moroccan man, who withheld his name, but said he has been stranded in Greece for the last 55 days, …

By late November, Sweden had received nearly 150,000 refugees, nearly twice as many as last year.

Last month, Sweden reversed its lenient asylum policies including canceling permanent residence permits for some groups and limiting the rights of family reunification.

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11:50 a.m.

Denmark's integration minister says police should be able to seize valuables from asylum-seekers to pay for their lodging, language classes, health care and job training courses.

Inger Stoejberg with the center-right Liberal government says a law proposal aims at bringing refugees in line with unemployed Danes, who can only get social benefits if they sell any assets above 10,000 kroner ($1,453).

Stoejberg said Friday that wedding rings, watches or items "with a sentimental value," should not be taken.

The proposal, which has the support of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party — Denmark's second largest group — is expected to pass next month.

So far, more than 9,000 people have sought shelter in 2015 in Denmark, which recently cut social benefits for refugees by up to 50 percent.

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10:35 a.m.

Turkey's state-run news agency says four Iraqi migrants — two of them children — have drowned after a boat taking them to Greece sank off the Turkish coast.

Anadolu Agency says the boat was taking eight Iraqi migrants to the Greek island of Kos. It sank on Friday shortly after leaving the Turkish Aegean resort of Bodrum.

Turkish coast guards rescued the four other migrants.

Anadolu said authorities detained a Turkish man suspected of organizing the journey.

Some 770,000 refugees and other migrants from the Middle East and Africa crossed to the Aegean islands in flimsy boats provided by smuggling rings this year. Hundreds have died during the crossings.

Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke (R), leaves the courtroom after a hearing with his attorney Daniel Herbert at Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago, Illinois December 18, 2015. REUTERS/Zbigniew Bzdak/Pool

By Mary Wisniewski and Justin Madden

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Several hundred protesters marched through downtown Chicago on Friday evening, calling on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down over complaints of abusive policing and a lack of accountability in the police department.

The protesters chanted "No justice, no peace" and wore T-shirts reading "Jail Rahm Now." It was the latest in a wave of peaceful and mostly small protests in Chicago set off by the release of a video of a white police officer shooting dead 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was black, in October 2014.

Emanuel, a Democrat with strong White House ties who was elected to a second term this year, and State's Attorney Anita Alvarez have been the target of protests because of the year-long delay in bringing charges against the officer in the video, Jason Van Dyke, who faces trial for murder.

Chicago is the latest U.S. city to see demonstrations over the deaths of young black men at the hands of police, many of them caught on video.

Chicago police killed an average of 17 people a year over the last seven years, most of them African American, and it is extremely unusual for police officers to face charges or be disciplined in such cases. It was not until uproar over the video of McDonald being shot 16 times as he apparently walked away from the police that the federal Department of Justice launched an investigation of civil rights issues in the city's police department.

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Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke (R), leaves the courtroom after a hearing with his attorney Da …

"There needs to be accountability for the injustices happening throughout the Chicago Police Department and our justice system," said Maria Moser, a resident of the south-side suburb of Beverly, who attended the march with her brother.

Earlier on Friday Van Dyke's defense attorney said he would seek a change of venue for the officer's trial. He has been indicted by a grand jury on six counts of first-degree murder and one charge of misconduct.

Van Dyke, 37, is free on bail but was in court with his lawyer Daniel Herbert for a very brief hearing following the indictment. Cook County Circuit Judge James Brown set an arraignment for Dec. 29, when Van Dyke is expected to enter a plea.

A small group of protesters shouted insults at Van Dyke as he left the court house.

Herbert told reporters he wants the trial moved to a county "outside the reach" of Mayor Emanuel's comments. "He has essentially told everyone in the public, in the City Council, that my client actually murdered Mr. McDonald, that he's a bad apple."

Emanuel's office did not respond to a request for comment. The mayor is not expected to heed calls for him to leave office.

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski and Justin Madden; writing by Fiona Ortiz, editing by Suzannah Gonzales and Dan Grebler)

A meeting of Foreign Ministers about the situation in Syria is pictured at the Palace Hotel in the Manhattan borough of New York December 18, 2015. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

By Denis Dyomkin, John Irish and Sabine Siebold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syria peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter million lives.

The resolution gives a U.N. blessing to a plan negotiated previously in Vienna that calls for a ceasefire, talks between the Syrian government and opposition, and a roughly two-year timeline to create a unity government and hold elections.

But the obstacles to ending the nearly five-year civil war remain daunting, with no side in the conflict able to secure a clear military victory. Despite their agreement, the major powers are bitterly divided on who may represent the opposition as well as on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"This council is sending a clear message to all concerned that the time is now to stop the killing in Syria and lay the groundwork for a government that the long-suffering people of that battered land can support," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the 15-nation council after the vote.

The resolution also calls for the U.N. to present the council with options for monitoring a ceasefire within one month.

Talks between Syria's government and opposition should begin in early January, the resolution said, though Kerry said mid-to-late January was more likely. It also endorsed the continued battle to defeat Islamic State militants who have seized large swaths of both Syria and neighboring Iraq.

It was one of the strongest appeals for peace by the council, divided for years on the issue of Syria's war, since Russia and China began vetoing a series of Western-drafted resolutions on the conflict in October 2011.

The resolution came after Moscow and Washington clinched a deal on a text. The two powers have had very different views on what should happen in Syria, where Islamic State militants control considerable territory that Western governments suspect has been a launch pad for attacks on Western nations and Russia.

Kerry made clear that there were still differences on the future of Assad, a close ally of Russia and Iran who Western countries want ousted, as well as on the question of which Syrian opposition groups will have a seat at the table in talks with the government.

"We are under no illusions about the obstacles that exist," Kerry said. "There obviously remain sharp differences within the international community, especially about the future of President Assad."

The resolution does not address Assad's fate.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said of the resolution: "This is a clear response to attempts to impose a solution from the outside on Syrians on any issues, including those regarding its president."

"CHAMPIONS OF DEMOCRACY"

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the talks between the Syrian government and opposition would only succeed if there were credible guarantees on the departure of Assad.

"How could this man unite a people that he has in part massacred?" Fabius said. "The idea that he could once again stand for elections is unacceptable to us."

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said Assad's government was prepared to take part in the talks in good faith.

"I reiterate the readiness of the Syrian government to participate effectively on any sincere effort where the Syrians will determine their choices through dialogue under Syrian leadership and not foreign intervention," he said, adding that all countries should coordinate with his government.

Agreement on a resolution came after a meeting of the so-called International Syria Support Group at New York's Palace Hotel.

Foreign ministers from 17 countries, including Lavrov, Kerry and other European and Middle Eastern ministers, as well as top diplomats from regional rivals Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, were in New York for the meetings.

During a break in Friday's talks, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said he had presented a document compiling the groups each country attending considered to be a "terrorist" organization.

Kerry said other countries would help Jordan draw up a final list.

As with the question of Assad's fate, diplomats say it will be extremely difficult to reach consensus on a list of terrorist groups to be excluded and legitimate members of an opposition who would participate in the negotiations.

The Syria road map, which also calls for a nationwide ceasefire that would not apply to Islamic State, Nusra Front and some other militant groups, was previously worked out in two rounds of ministerial talks in Vienna.

Diplomats said the main problem in the negotiations on the resolution involved Russian and Iranian concerns about how to refer to a bloc of opposition groups that would join U.N.-led peace talks with the Syrian government.

Western officials say a recent meeting in Saudi Arabia of opposition figures made significant headway in coming up with an opposition bloc, though Russia and Iran have questioned the legitimacy of the Saudi-hosted discussions.

In a dig at Saudi Arabia, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in The Guardian on Friday that it was "utterly absurd that those who have denied their own population the most rudimentary tenets of democracy ... are now self-declared champions of democracy in Syria."

The Riyadh conference agreed to set up a 34-member secretariat to supervise peace talks, and that committee will also select the opposition's negotiating team.

Earlier this week, diplomats said some progress had been made on the most difficult sticking point in the talks: Assad's fate.

They said Russia had indicated it had no problem with the eventual ouster of Assad at the end of a transition period, though it would not admit that publicly.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau, Parisa Hafezi, Parisa Hafezi, Arshad Mohammed and Michelle Nichols; Writing by Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Tom Brown, James Dalgleish and Leslie Adler)

People leave flowers at a makeshift memorial after last week's shooting in San Bernardino, California December 7, 2015. REUTERS/Patrick T. Fallon

By Sharon Bernstein

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown on Friday declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County, following the massacre by an Islamic State-inspired couple at a holiday party for county workers.

Because the 14 people killed and 26 wounded in the terrorist attack were largely employees in the county's environmental health department, the massacre left San Bernardino County with too few health inspectors and others needed to carry out critical work, Brown said in his emergency proclamation.

Declaring an emergency will allow the state to send in health inspectors as replacements until the county is able to resume normal staffing, Brown said.

The declaration also allows the state Office of Emergency Services to provide other assistance to the county as needed.

As part of the declaration, Brown also ordered the suspension of all fees normally charged when residents request a death certificate or seek to bury someone.

The Dec. 2 attack was carried out by a county restaurant inspector, Syed Rizwan Farook, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, at the offices of the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, where environment health department employees had gathered for a meeting and holiday party.

Prior reports had listed the number of wounded as 21, but Brown in his declaration cited 26.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Bogota (AFP) - The United Arab Emirates has secretly sent some 300 Colombian mercenaries to fight for it in Yemen, paying handsomely to recruit a private army of well-trained, battle-hardened South American soldiers, sources told AFP.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Colombians' experience fighting leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers in their home country made them attractive recruits for the UAE, whose relatively inexperienced army is part of an Arab coalition helping Yemen's government fight a war against Huthi rebels.

"Colombian soldiers are highly prized for their training in fighting guerrillas," one source, a Colombian former army officer, told AFP in Bogota.

"Colombians have so many years of experience in war that they can take it."

The presence of Colombian troops in Yemen's bloody conflict further complicates what is already a messy proxy war pitting Iran, which backs the rebels, against a US-backed Arab coalition led by rival regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia.

Since the rebels began seizing large swaths of territory in July 2014, the conflict has left 6,000 dead and 28,000 wounded, many of them civilians, according to the United Nations.

Colombian soldiers are frequently recruited by international private security firms for jobs in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan.

The source, a 48-year-old man who left the army in the late 1990s, was himself formerly employed by Blackwater, the controversial US company now known as Academi that was contracted by the Pentagon to provide military and security services in Iraq.

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Colombian soldiers' experience fighting leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers in their home co …

He was hired in 2004, amid what he called a "boom in the recruitment of Colombians to fight in Iraq," and has since worked in Afghanistan, the UAE, Qatar and Djibouti.

Latin Americans were popular with firms like Blackwater, he said: in all, 1,500 Colombians, 1,000 Peruvians, 500 Chileans and 250 Salvadorans were contracted in Iraq between 2004 and 2006.

He said that from around 2010 the UAE began recruiting Colombians for a private army it was forming at a base in the middle of the desert called Zayed Military City.

Prized as special forces commanders or Blackhawk helicopter pilots, the Colombians are paid around $3,300 a month -- five times less than equivalent American contractors, but a small fortune by Colombian standards, he said.

"They were not recruited for combat missions. It was for security and protection missions. So they are not considered mercenaries," he said.

- Extra $120 a day -

But a month ago about 300 of the 3,000 Colombians recruited so far by the UAE "decided voluntarily" to go fight as full-fledged mercenaries in southern Yemen, based in the port of Aden, the source said.

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Colombia's army has spent the past five decades fighting a low-intensity conflict against leftis …

Their deployment came after 30 Emirati soldiers were killed in Yemen in a missile attack blamed on the rebels.

The source said the UAE initially planned to send 800 Colombians but met resistance from the recruits, who complained that fighting in Yemen was beyond the scope of their original contracts.

"The Colombians were supposed to pass unnoticed as local Emirati troops, and that caused a large number of them to desert," the source said. "They said their contract was in the UAE and not fighting other people's wars."

He said the UAE sought to sweeten the deal by limiting tours of duty to three months and offering an extra $120 a day in combat pay.

"They want to make war an industry using Colombians as cannon fodder," he said.

No Colombians have been killed in Yemen so far, he added, denying recent reports from rebel-linked media outlets of Colombians killed in combat.

"There are wartime interests behind that fear campaign," he said.

Another Colombian source, security expert John Marulanda, said lucrative salary offers from foreign firms are a "drain" on Colombia's well-trained but poorly paid military.

"Around 2011, very well-trained people started leaving," Marulanda told AFP.

"The UAE is participating in the coalition by discreetly sending mercenaries to Yemen. And it is a fact that among those mercenaries there are former members of the Colombian military."

A retired senior Colombian officer who asked not to be named said this had "created quite a lot of problems" for the Colombian defense ministry.

"The best officers are going" to the Emirates, the retired officer told AFP. "They are not recruiting their own nationals. They prefer to recruit people who are already prepared and specialized."

Colombia's army has spent the past five decades fighting a low-intensity conflict against leftist rebel groups.

The conflict, which has also drawn in right-wing death squads and drug traffickers, has killed more than 220,000 people.