Midday Roundup: Two refugees arrested in U.S. on terror charges

Terror arrests. Authorities say they have arrested two refugees on terrorism-related charges in California and Texas. Both men were Palestinians born in Iraq. It’s unclear how closely the two cases are related, though some reports say the men communicated with each other. The criminal complaint unsealed in Sacramento, Calif., accuses 23-year-old Aws Mohammed Younis al-Jayab, who came to the United States as a refugee from Syria, of traveling to Syria to fight alongside terrorist organizations and lying to investigators about it. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston says 24-year-old Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, a refugee from Iraq, was indicted Wednesday on three charges of trying to provide material support to the Islamic State group.

Friends like these. Hillary Clinton will receive an endorsement from Planned Parenthood on Sunday at a campaign rally, the first time the abortion giant has thrown its support behind a presidential candidate during the primaries. The endorsement comes with $20 million to spend on campaigning, The New York Times reported. Support for Planned Parenthood is a regular talking point in Clinton’s stump speeches, and the organization is counting on a Democratic president to protect its federal funding. The House and Senate have both voted to defund Planned Parenthood, but they don’t have enough votes to override President Barack Obama’s veto.

Pipeline damages. The company behind the Keystone XL pipeline is suing the U.S. government. TransCanada Corporation is filing two lawsuits against the White House after the Obama administration rejected plans to connect Canada’s oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast. One of the suits, filed in Houston federal court, claims the president overstepped his constitutional authority by killing the project in November. The second is an international petition seeking $15 billion in damages, alleging the U.S. breached obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Gun show. President Barack Obama defended his gun control proposals in a televised town hall meeting with people on both sides of the issue Thursday night. The meeting, shown on CNN, featured former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in 2011; Taya Kyle, whose late husband was depicted in the film American Sniper; and Cleo Pendleton, whose daughter was shot and killed near Obama’s Chicago home. Taking the stage at George Mason University, Obama accused the National Rifle Association (NRA) of refusing to participate in the meeting despite having its headquarters nearby. “Since this is a main reason they exist, you’d think that they’d be prepared to have a debate with the president,” Obama said. But NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the group saw “no reason to participate in a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House.”

High-profile hideout. An apartment in Brussels used by the terrorists who attacked Paris in November has yielded important clues in the investigation, police said today. A search of the apartment on Dec. 10 turned up bomb-making materials and a fingerprint belonging to Salah Abdeslam, one of the suspected Paris attackers who remains at-large. An international manhunt is ongoing for the 26-year-old Brussels native. Federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said authorities decided to release the information after more than a month to dispel inaccuracies published by some Belgian media. Refusing to disclose specifics, he said the evidence acquired in the apartment “has helped us get further in the investigation.”

WORLD Radio’s Mary Reichard and The Associated Press contributed to this report.