Britons arrested in US over twitter jokes

Two Britons have been barred from entering the US after one joked on twitter he was going to ''dig up Marilyn Monroe'' and ''destroy America''.

Two Britons have been barred from entering the US after one joked on twitter he was going to ''dig up Marilyn Monroe''.

Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was kept in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours when he landed in Los Angeles after he was flagged up as a potential threat for joking on the social networking site that he was going to ''destroy America''.

In a previous tweet, Leigh - who arrived in the US with friend Emily Bunting - wrote: ''Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America? (sic)''

And in another message - in which he quoted TV show 'Family Guy' - he wrote: ''3 weeks today, we're totally in LA p***ing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up! (sic)''

Emily told the Daily Mail newspaper: ''The officials told us we were not allowed in to the country because of Leigh's tweet. They wanted to know what we were going to do.

''They asked why we wanted to destroy America and we tried to explain it meant to get trashed and party.

''I almost burst out laughing when they asked me if I was going to be Leigh's lookout while he dug up Marilyn Monroe.''