In America, the quest for perfectly straight teeth can lead to orthodontia bills of thousands of dollars, but in Japan, a dental “defect” -- slightly crooked canine teeth -- makes young women more fetching, even “adorable,” say many men.
Women with the “yaeba” look have canines pushed slightly forward by the molars behind them so that the canines develop a fang-like appearance.
One dental salon, the Plaisir, in Tokyo, recently began offering non-permanent fixtures that replicate the look among straight-toothed women.
Mother
Fotina
is playing
with fire   
Polls report that as many as 57 percent of Russians “notice” signs of a “cult” surrounding Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, according to a Spiegel Online dispatch.
A chief cult leader is “Mother Fotina,” 62, who has a following of thousands among Russian Orthodox practitioners and believes herself to be the reincarnation of Joan of Arc and Putin to be St. Paul.
“God,” she said, “has appointed Putin to Russia to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ.”
Mother Fotina was a convicted embezzler in the 1990s, and critics suspect her devotion to Putin is a ruse to deflect law-enforcement attention.
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa Fla. 33679 or go to www.newsoftheweird.com.)