Azerbaijan Removes Mubarak Monument

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- A monument honoring Hosni Mubarak has been torn down in the ex-Soviet Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan now that the Egyptian president has stepped down.

The mayor's office in the town of Khyrdalan, about 15 miles north of the capital, Baku, said the bronze statue of Mubarak was dismantled early Wednesday.

Authorities initially ignored opposition demands to remove the monument amid the pro-democracy protests that led to Mubarak's fall in February.

The monument was replaced with a statue of an ancient Egyptian.

Mubarak's statue had been erected in 2007 in the Egypt-Azerbaijan Friendship Park.