Here's a story that really made me smile.

MOSTAR, Bosnia (Reuters) - Bosnia's southern town of Mostar unveiled the world's first statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee on Saturday, paying homage to a childhood hero of all its divided ethnic groups.

The life-size 1.68 meter (5ft 7in) bronze statue is situated in Mostar's central park, close to the former front line of Bosnia's 1992-95 civil war. A decade after the conflict, Mostar's Muslim and Croat inhabitants remain deeply split.

Unveiled by its initiators, Veselin Gatalo and Nino Raspudic of Mostar's Urban Movement, the statue portrays the Chinese-American actor, who died 32 years ago, in a typical defensive fighting position.

"This does not mean that Bruce Lee will unite us, because people are different and cannot be united and we will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats," Gatalo said. "But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee."

Gatalo has said Lee -- a hero to teenagers all over Bosnia in the 1970s and 1980s -- epitomised justice, mastery and honesty, virtues the town had badly missed.

The statue shows Lee facing north, so that Muslims in the eastern part of Mostar and Croats in its western half do not see him as poised for a fight with them. Croatia is in the south.

Apparently the statue was vandalized by "hooligans" shortly after it was unveiled on Saturday.