NATO dispatched warships to the Aegean Sea on Thursday to target people-smuggling operations, in an attempt to cope with the huge wave of migrants seeking to reach Europe's shores.
At least 21 asylum seekers from the Middle East and North Africa are suspects in the New Year's Eve rampage of sexual assaults and thefts in the German city of Cologne, authorities said, even as word emerged of similar acts in Finland, Sweden and other German cities.
Costa Rica is sometimes criticized for copying the United States too closely and it appears anti-Syrian hysteria is the latest trend to arrive from Uncle Sam.
U.S. President Barack Obama urged Americans Thursday to open their hearts to refugees in his Thanksgiving message to the nation, likening them to the pilgrims the holiday celebrates.
Since the start of Syria's bloody civil war four years ago, a flood of refugees have fled the country in search of some place safer. Millions turned to neighboring countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. And a trickle are now appearing on the western side of the Atlantic, having decided that a trip across a foreign continent at Central American smugglers' hands is their best bet for starting a new life.
The five Syrian men arrested in Honduras and the Syrian woman arrested in Costa Rica this week are being treated as undocumented migrants. Authorities said there was no sign they had any ties to the Islamic State group or other extremist organizations.