President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, embattled by controversy at home, might have been expected to be extra careful on her visit to China where she’s looking to boost investment in her country’s sputtering economy. 
 
 But the Argentine President, who met with President Xi Jinping on Wednesday and joined a meeting of 1,000 Argentine and Chinese businessmen, sparked a flurry of online outrage when she posted a tweet mocking the Chinese accent by replacing r’s with l’s: 
 
 “Are they here only for the lice and petloleum,” she said in Spanish, in a tweet that has been shared more than 1,500 times since she posted it Wednesday: 
 
 Fernández, who has more than 3.5 million followers on Twitter, followed up the initial tweet a minute later with another post that appeared to respond to the commotion over her earlier comment: 
 
 “Sorry, do you know what? The levels of ridiculousness and absurdity are so high they can only be digested with humor,” she said. 
 
 Fernández’s government has been rocked by the death of Alberto Nisman, a prosecutor investigating the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center. Nisman’s body was found the day before he had been expected to testify before Congress that the President had covered up Iran’s alleged involvement in the attack. 
 
 On Thursday, the lead investigator into Nisman’s death said that a warrant for Fernández’s arrest signed by the prosecutor had been found in the garbage in his apartment. ||||| Nope. Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has not become godmother of a Jewish baby to stop him from becoming a werewolf – despite what you may have read in multiple news reports. 
 
 Over the past few days, the story has been reported and unquestioningly re-reported across the echo chamber of the internet, picked up by news organisations around the world including Haaretz, Buzzfeed, The Independent and The Huffington Post. 
 
 Like all good urban myths, the articles were based on a grain of truth: by tradition, the seventh son (or daughter) born to an Argentine family is eligible to become the godson (or daughter) of the president. Until this month, the honour had only been bestowed on Christian babies, but on Wednesday, Iair Tawil – not a baby, but the strapping 21-year old son of a rabbi – became the country’s first Jewish presidential godson. 
 
 In her Twitter account, Kirchner described Tawil, 21, as “completely sweet” and lit Hanukkah candles with his family. 
 
 Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) Tenía razón. Me trajeron de regalo un candelabro de Israel. Me pidieron que encendiera las velas… pic.twitter.com/DVWewmZera 
 
 Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) Yo no lo sabía, pero su visita coincidía con la celebración de Hanukkah. El papá, decía que no era una casualidad… pic.twitter.com/o3y5E17Gew 
 
 But somehow, the story became entangled with the ancient legend of the lobizón (Argentina’s equivalent to the European werewolf). According to some versions of the myth, the seventh son of the seventh son is particularly prone to fall victim to the curse. 
 
 Evidently, the chance meeting of a Latin American president with a colourful myth too good to fact-check proved irresistible – confirming as it did any number of stereotypes about erratic behaviour from national leaders in the continent of magical realism. 
 
 But according to Argentine historian Daniel Balmaceda, there is no link between the two traditions. “The local myth of the lobizón is not in any way connected to the custom that began over 100 years ago by which every seventh son (or seventh daughter) born in Argentina becomes godchild to the president,” he said. 
 
 That custom began in 1907, when Enrique Brost and Apolonia Holmann, Volga German emigrés from south-eastern Russia asked then-president José Figueroa Alcorta to become godfather to their seventh son, said the historian. 
 
 “The couple wanted to maintain a custom from Czarist Russia, where the Tsar was said to become godfather to seventh sons, and Argentina’s president accepted.” 
 
 The practice soon became tradition and was passed into law in 1974 by Isabel Perón, the widow of Argentina’s political strongman General Juan Perón, once she succeeded him in the presidential seat after his death in office. As Argentina’s first woman president, Mrs Perón extended the benefit to seventh daughters as well. 
 
 
 
 “The unconnected myth of the lobizón began among Argentina’s “gauchos,” the cowboys of Argentina’s vast cattle-raising Pampas, adapted from the older European werewolf legends,” said Balmaceda. 
 
 
 
 In the Argentinian version, the lobizón transforms into a mixture of pig and dog every Tuesday and Friday night – not just once every full moon. Unlikely other werewolves of myth, the lobizón transmits its curse not through its bite but by passing between the legs of its unfortunate victims. 
 
 In Catholic Argentina, large familes are not uncommon: over 120,000 families had seven of more children at last count in 2006. Not all qualify to become presidential god-children as the honour is only given to those in which seven sons are born consecutively, with no daughters in between. 
 
 The president with most godsons was Juan Perón, who had 1,982 over three terms in office. He is followed by another Peronist former president, Carlos Menem, who had 1,136 during the 1990s. Fernández has become presidential godmother to some 700 children since taking office in 2007. Earlier this year, she set another precedent, by making the the daughter of a lesbian couple the first presidential godchild. ||||| Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner gestures during a ceremony outside the Casa Rosada Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires December 10, 2011. 
 
 BUENOS AIRES | 
 
 BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has thyroid cancer and will undergo surgery next month, her government said on Tuesday, adding that the cancerous cells had not spread. 
 
 Fernandez, 58, was easily elected to a second four-year term in October, vowing to deepen her unorthodox policies despite complaints from business leaders who say her heavy-handed management of the economy is stifling investment. 
 
 Fernandez was diagnosed with a papillary carcinoma that has not metastasized, said her spokesman, Alfredo Scoccimarro. The operation is scheduled to take place on January 4 and she is expected to take a leave of absence until January 24. 
 
 "The thyroid gland will have to be removed," said Buenos Aires-based cancer specialist Julio Moreno. "The prognosis is very good. The chances of being cured are 90 to 98 percent." 
 
 The cancer was detected last week during a routine check. Papillary carcinoma is the most common type of thyroid cancer and normally affects people under the age of 40, especially women. 
 
 A skilled orator fond of glamorous clothes, high heels and make-up, Fernandez still wears black as she mourns her husband and closest advisor, former President Nestor Kirchner, who died late last year. 
 
 When Kirchner died, many thought it spelled the end of the couple's idiosyncratic blend of state intervention, nationalist rhetoric and the championing of human rights in grains exporting powerhouse Argentina, the world's No. 3 soybean supplier. 
 
 But Fernandez pulled off a remarkable comeback on the back of a brisk economic expansion and an outpouring of public sympathy. She was re-elected with 54 percent of the vote, promising to stay true to her policies despite objections from Wall Street and international investors. 
 
 Latin America's No. 3 economy is growing at nearly 9 percent a year. But a worsening global economic outlook combined with entrenched high inflation at home are seen reining in Argentina's growth to about 4 percent next year. 
 
 Fernandez is one of several Latin American leaders to have cancer. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underwent chemotherapy earlier this year while Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo's lymphatic cancer is in remission. 
 
 And former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is being successfully treated for a cancerous tumor on his Larynx, according to his doctors. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Walter Bianchi; Editing by Helen Popper and Todd Eastham)
– Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is in China today, where she met with President Xi Jinping to sign various agreements and spoke at a conference attended by 1,000 businessmen in an effort to raise Chinese investment in Argentina's struggling economy. And yet, she still thought it would be a good idea to post a tweet mocking the Chinese accent, Bloomberg reports. The tweet, posted in Spanish, translates as: "Did they only come for lice and petloleum?" She was referring to the businessmen; Bloomberg notes that the tweet was in response to criticism that she tends to crowd her supporters into events. She followed the original tweet up with, "Sorry, do you know what? The levels of ridiculousness and absurdity are so high they can only be digested with humor," Time reports. The presidential palace's official Twitter account retweeted that second tweet, but not the first. (Kirchner is really not having a good week.)