Outcry over Obama statue

(REUTERS)

A statue of Barack Obama as a boy has been placed at the Jakarta elementary school once attended by the US President, after there was a backlash against its display in a public park in the Indonesian capital.

The replacement of the bronze statue came a week after it disappeared from public view. The likeness of a 10-year-old Obama smiling at a butterfly perched on an outstretched thumb was returned to its pedestal late at night.

Detractors of its previous location had argued that an Indonesian hero should be honoured instead. A Facebook campaign attracted more than 50,000 supporters of the statue's removal, and court action was initiated to force it.