Los Angeles - The transgender American man who last year became the first male to have a baby is pregnant again, he revealed Thursday to ABC News.

Thomas Beatie, 34, switched genders in 2002, but did not remove his female reproductive organs. He first became pregnant in 2007 after he stopped taking male hormones and his wife Nancy artificially inseminated him with sperm they bought on the internet. They used a syringe they bought at a pet store.

Beattie gave birth to Susan in June 2008, sparking a storm of interest around the world.

Washington - US President George W Bush on Thursday called for overhauling the "outdated" regulatory structures of the financial industry in light of a massive global credit crisis, but warned against reinventing the free market system that has spurred economic growth for decades.

Speaking ahead of an emergency Washington summit of the world's 20 leading economies, Bush offered a broad defence of US-style capitalism and free markets, warning leaders to fix the flaws exposed by the financial crisis rather than abandon the system wholesale.

Washington - The United States wants to send a top diplomat to Russia before the end of President George W Bush's term to discuss plans for deploying a missile-defence system to Eastern Europe.

Undersecretary of State John Rood, who has lead the diplomatic discussions on the missile defence plans, hopes to travel to Moscow to discuss an updated proposal designed to alleviate Russian concerns, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.

Dusseldorf - One of the main business backers of the Nord Stream gas pipeline to be built under the Baltic Sea, the giant German chemicals company BASF, affirmed the plan Thursday after seeming doubts in Russia.

"My most recent talks with Alexei Miller, the chief of Gazprom, confirmed that all the parties are working with firm resolve ... to create the Nord Stream pipeline in the time frame," BASF chief executive Juergen Hambrecht said.

His response was released by the German business daily Handelsblatt a day in advance of publication.

Los Angeles - Over 5 million Californians ducked for cover and held Thursday as they took part in what was billed as the largest public emergency drill in US history.

Some 5,000 first responders and emergency managers were also involved in The Great ShakeOut drill, which was designed to simulate the effects of a 7.8 magnitude quake on the San Andreas Fault across the densely populated area of Southern California.

Washington - Scientists have taken the first-ever images of a multi-planet solar system orbiting a distant star.

The findings, published online Tursday by the journal Science Express, show three planets orbiting a star called HR8799, about 130 light years from Earth and 1.5 times the size of the Sun.

Though scientists have found about 200 such distant planets in the last decade, all have been detected through indirect techniques, such as measuring gravitational influence on the star being orbited.