Argentina president under fire for tweets mocking Chinese accent

Feb. 4, 2015: Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez shake hands after signing documents following their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (AP Photo/Rolex Dela Pena)

Embattled Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, while on a state visit to China seeking badly needed investment, caused a furor Wednesday by joking about her hosts’ accents on Twitter.

Fernandez tried to mimic a Chinese accent by switching “r’s” with “l’s” in a tweet in Spanish that translates as: “Did they only come for lice and petloleum.”

A few minutes later, she added: “Sorry, the levels of ridiculousness and absurdity are so high they can only be digested with humor.”

The tweets came as she met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

As of late Wednesday, there was no official response from China about the comments by Fernandez, a prolific tweeter who has 3.53 million followers.

But that didn’t stop the Twitterverse in the South American country and beyond from exploding with criticism of what many considered a racist tweet.

“Cristina Fernandez’s lack of tack and respect is incredible,” wrote @FaundezLafarga. “She goes to China looking for (economic) agreements and she makes fun of their accents.”

@GuyChazan wrote: “Faux pas in China. Really, this sort of joke went out of fashion in the 70s.”

The latest controversy comes as Fernandez struggles to distance herself from the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead in his bathroom Jan. 18, hours before he was to elaborate on allegations that Fernandez helped shield Iranians connected to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85.

Fernandez has vehemently denied the accusations, saying Argentina had nothing to gain from such a deal. She has suggested that rogue elements in the intelligence services ordered Nisman’s hit, but has not elaborated.

Earlier this week, just as her visit to China was getting underway, investigators looking into Nisman’s death said they had found a of an arrest warrant for Fernandez that Nisman had written up. While he never presented it, the revelations brought Fernandez back to the center of the case.

On Wednesday, relatives of victims of the bombing marched with family members of the victims of Argentina’s military dictatorship and other national tragedies to demand an end to impunity and the truth about what happened to Nisman.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of Congress in Buenos Aires with the march ending in the famed Plaza de Mayo.

“The demand for truth and justice that relatives of the AMIA (Jewish center) victims are making is the same as what we want for the 30,000 people who disappeared” during the dictatorship, said Nora Cortinas, who co-founded the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo human rights group.

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Argentina president under fire for tweets mocking Chinese accent

Booted from plane over tweets

Lisa Carter Knight claims social media got her kicked off a JetBlue flight in Philadelphia. (Fox29)

A New Hampshire woman was denied entry on a JetBlue flight after tweeting about a pilot’s sobriety testing.

Marketing executive Lisa Carter-Knight was waiting to board Flight760 in Philadelphia for Boston on Tuesday when it was announced that the plane would be delayed because the pilot believed another passenger accused him of being intoxicated.

MyFoxPhilly reports that, according to passenger accounts posted on Twitter, someone joked with the delayed pilot, writing: “This flight’s late, were you at the bar?” 

JetBlue took the allegation seriously, and as a precaution conducted a sobriety test. The pilot was eventually cleared, but the plane was delayed.

Carter-Knight live-tweeted the incident, posting several comments about passengers questioning the pilot’s sobriety.

#JetBlue Major debacle on flight 760 in Philly- pilot accuses passengers of accusing him of being intoxicated demands all passengers back

— Lisa Carter-Knight (@drinkwaterevent) October 8, 2014

#philyjetblue760 Passengers falsely accused and ordered back to gate-pilot accuses passenger

— Lisa Carter-Knight (@drinkwaterevent) October 8, 2014

Just after midnight, the flight was cleared to leave, but Carter-Knight was denied boarding she says because of her “social media coverage” of the night’s events. 

JetBlue claims that was not why the executive was not allowed on board.

“The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. If we feel a customer is not complying with safety instructions, exhibits objectionable behavior or causes conflict at the gate or on the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane or will be denied boarding especially if the crew feels the situation runs the risk of accelerating in the air,” JetBlue said in a statement to WMUR-TV. “In this instance, the customer received a refund and chose to fly on another carrier.”

Carter-Night took the refund but she posted to Twitter that the reason she was given her money back was because of “service denied” not unruly behavior.

The refund on my FLT 760 airline ticket was processed as “service denied ” not unruly behavior .Checkrefundticket #philyjetblue760spin

— Lisa Carter-Knight (@drinkwaterevent) October 8, 2014

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Booted from plane over tweets

News tweets: Snowden, A-Rod and Cowell

2 August 2013 Last updated at 19:03 ET Tweets of the week Making waves in 140 characters or less Alex Rodriguez, Simon Cowell and Bradley Manning For the week ending 2 August, here is the news making waves in America – all in 140 characters or less.

1. Snowden’s gonna have a hell of a time figuring out which carousel will have his luggage.

Huffington Post’s White House correspondent Sam Stein (@samsteinhp). After spending more than a month holed up in a Moscow airport, Edward Snowden received asylum for a year from the Russian government.

2. Simon Cowell is gonna be a dad. In future news, a child weeps when his father calls his performance of Itsy Bitsy Spider “bloody dreadful.”

Comedian Jenny Johnson (@JennyJohnsonHi5) envisions parenting life with the notoriously ill-tempered X-Factor judge, who announced this week he’s to be a father.

3. Boy, I was kinda mad our tax $ went to war crimes but I’m REALLY mad Bradley Manning told us our tax $ went to war crimes.

This week US Army Pte First Class Bradley Manning was convicted of 20 charges, including espionage, for leaking 700,000 classified US government documents to Wikileaks. However, comedian John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) suggested that perhaps the leak wasn’t the real crime at hand.

4. George Zimmerman was pulled over for speeding today, although according to him his car was parked and it was the road that was speeding by.

After being acquitted of murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman reappeared in Texas, where he was pulled over for speeding and found to have a gun in the car. He got off without a ticket, which comedy writer Guy Endore-Kaiser (@GuyEndoreKaiser) ascribed to yet another effective self-defence plea.

5. I knew San Diego mayor Bob Filner was trouble when he made Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’ his campaign song.

Copy writer Mark Campbell (@MrWordsWorth) on the embattled mayor. He is accused by at least eight women of unwelcome advances, including physical harassment. Filner this week blamed the city for not providing him with harassment training.

6. Defending A-Rod is like fishing a lake that’s been stocked with boots.

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez finds himself engulfed in a doping scandal and facing a possible life ban from baseball. Writer Ben Greenman (@bengreenman) has no love lost for the former superstar.

7. Just Googled “back pack,” “pressure cooker” and for good measure, “jihadi quinoa recipes.” *sits back and waits for a knock on the door*

After journalist Michele Catalano created a stir by claiming that six people from a local anti-terrorism task force visited her house to question her husband about fairly mundane Google searches, Twitter users like NPR senior strategist Andy Carvin (@acarvin) felt their privacy threatened. However, it is now unclear whether her Google searches really provoked the visit. The FBI has denied any involvement.

8. Pretty sure the Keystone XL pipeline has already created at least one million jobs in lobbying and advertising

While the controversial pipeline between Canada and US raises the ire of environmental groups, The Hill reporter Sam Baker (@sam_baker) thought the project might at least indirectly benefit the country’s economy. On Friday, the US labor department announced the economy added 165,000 jobs in July, with the unemployment rate dropping to 7.4%.

9. We did it everyone: We ran out of Anthony Weiner stories to put on the front pages of NYC tabloid newspapers.

After weeks of stories about the New York mayoral hopeful and his sexual controversies, New York Times staff editor Michael Roston (@michaelroston) felt the media had hit Weiner fatigue – despite the opportunity for puns. However, with Weiner still in the race, the hiatus might not last for long.

10. House voting for 40th time to repeal Obamacare. It won’t pass, but members voting yes get $5 off a large 2-topping Papa John’s pizza.

The internet humourist known as @pourmecoffee looks for reasons why the Republican Party would continue to vote against the Affordable Care Act. Though the law was passed by Congress and validated by the Supreme Court, the House continues to try to defund or repeal the programme. That might delight the head of the Papa John’s pizza chain, who said the law would force him to raise prices.

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Some tweets may have been edited for style and clarity

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News tweets: Snowden, A-Rod and Cowell