News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Muslim authorities, backed by Israeli police, barred WorldNetDaily journalist Aaron Klein from taking photographs of Muslim construction on the Temple Mount. Archaeologists fear that Muslims have used the work as an excuse to employ bulldozers and backhoes to remove remains of the wall from the outer courtyard of the Second Temple.

Klein and a camera crew from an Internet-based television network ascended the Mount to obtain footage of the trench that has been dug by Waqf Muslim authorities. They restricted the photographers to taking pictures of a trench that already has been closed.

The Muslims received a permit from the Antiquities Authorities, who may have been ordered by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to issue the permit as another "good will" measure to Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The Prime Minister has not commented on the work, which might destroy what would be the most significant archeological find of ruins of the Holy Temples.

Klein and the crew were escorted from the site by the Waqf and an Israeli policeman.