Alabama: Ten Commandments monument moved

A controversial monument featuring the Ten Commandments was removed today from the court building in the Alabama state capital, Montgomery. The 2,400 kilos stone slab had dominated the rotunda of the building ever since Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore installed it there in 2001. But last year a federal judge ruled that the monument - nicknamed 'Roy's Holy Rock' - violated the constitutional separation of church and state in the American constitution, and ordered its removal by last Wednesday. Justice Moore refused to comply. As the deadline passed the other justices on the Alabama supreme court voted to remove the monument, and Moore was suspended on charges of violating canons of judicial ethics. Hundreds of protesters held a vigil against the move all week. Many lay on the ground as the stone was taken away. Although the Ten Commandments monument has been placed out of public view, the stone remains inside the building.