An Argentine evangelical pastor was born again after a book of Psalms he was holding deflected a bullet fired at close range, officials in the western province of Mendoza said. Skip related content

Mauricio Zanes Condori, 38, was trying to talk two thieves out of robbing his church, located in the town of Rodeo del Medio, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) west of Buenos Aires, local judicial authorities reported.

One of the thieves aimed his handgun at Zanes Condori's chest and fired at a distance of two meters (about seven feet).

The criminals immediately fled, and churchgoers who were watching in horror as the event unfolded, called for an ambulance.

But the bullet hit the book of Psalms that Zanes Condori was holding to his chest.

A medic who arrived at the scene said the book slowed down the bullet and deflected its trajectory, so in the end it only scratched Zanes Condori's chest.

The official report said that a Bible had stopped the bullet, but Zanes Condori later clarified that it was a book of Psalsm

"That leads me to beieve in a God that takes care of me," Zanes Condor told the online publication, Los Andes.

Two homosexual penguins have successfully hatched an egg that was rejected by its parents and are now proudly rearing the chick, the German zoo housing the couple said on Wednesday. Skip related content

"Z and Vielpunkt, both males, gladly accepted their 'Easter present' and began straight away with hatching the egg," said the zoo in Bremerhaven, in northern Germany.

"Since the chick arrived they are behaving in the same way as one would expect a heterosexual couple to do. Both happy fathers are now diligently handling the everyday care ... of their adopted offspring," the zoo said.

Z and Vielpunkt are part of a six-strong gay community among the zoo's collection of endangered Humboldt penguins who rose to fame in 2005 when four Swedish females were brought in an unsuccessful attempt to "cure" them.

"Homosexuality is nothing unusual among animals," the zoo said. "Sex and coupling up in our world do not necessarily have anything to do with reproduction."

The Humboldt penguin is normally found on the coast of Chile and Peru, but numbers have dropped to between 12,000 and 20,000 as industrial fishing methods have led to dwindling stocks of the anchovies on which they feed.

A New York couple really will be on cloud nine when they marry later this month: they'll exchange vows in zero gravity. Skip related content

Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan will be floating -- possibly upside down -- as they say "I do" in a specially modified Boeing 727-200 departing Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral on June 20, a statement from Zero Gravity Corporation said.

They will be "the first bride and groom to be married in zero gravity," said the company which arranges commercial weightless flights.

"Richard Garriott, the sixth private explorer in history to go to space and the first second-generation US astronaut, will officiate," the company said.

According to the statement, the aircraft's interior replicates levels of weightlessness found on Mars or the Moon. "It's an experience unlike any other."

Although the betrothed may have trouble with rings floating away, they'll at least get out of the extreme setting unscathed.

The plane is "a zero-gravity playroom, complete with padded floors and walls," Zero Gravity said.