Washington  - Alex Rodriguez, arguably the greatest US baseball player and an icon for the sport, admitted Monday to taking performance-enhancing drugs for three years while playing for the Texas Rangers.

The shocking confession came in an interview with US sports network ESPN. Rodriguez, or A-Rod, said he started using steroids in 2001 after signing a 252-million-dollar contract with Texas, which at the time was the most expensive in baseball history.

"I was stupid for three years. I was very, very stupid," said Rodriguez.

Taipei - Taiwan, still reeling from its defeat at the hands of China at the Beijing Olympics, is aiming to advance to the top eight at the 2009 World Baseball Classic, a baseball official said Friday.

"In the first World Baseball Classic held in 2006, Taiwan failed to make it into the top eight. So our goal is to beat either Japan or South Korea and advance into the top eight," Lin Tzung-cheng, secretary-general of the Chinese-Taipei Baseball Association, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Boston- Germany's top diplomat Saturday defied warnings from his counterpart Condoleezza Rice,