In the opening match of the Hockey World Cup that begun on Sunday, Olympic silver medalist Spain beat the South African team by 4-2 under tight security.

After the slow start, the Spanish team recovered and then won the match.

South Africa, ranked 13th, shocked the Spanish defence twice in the first half and went 2-2 equal, but the third-ranked Spain asserted its supremacy afterward.

Moreover, Julian Hykes scored the first goal for South Africa in the 16th minute, dribbling into the striking circle before beating goalkeeper Francisco Cortes with a flick into the cage.

According to the official figures, the jobless rate in the 16 countries that use the euro held steady at 9.9% in the month of January for the third successive month.

In the first estimation for January, the EU's statistics office told media that almost 15.7 million people were unemployed in the eurozone, an increase of 136,000 as compared to the same period in previous year.

On the yearly basis, unemployment has increased by 2.2 million in the eurozone.

Telefonica TEF had announced last year's results that were normally in line with the company's estimations, and the company won't be changing its fair value estimate.

The report showed fall of 2.1 percent year over year against their expectation of a decline of 1.7 percent.

Excluding negative currency movements, profit would have been raised by 0.2 percent.

In spite of the weak economy, the company raised its subscribers 5.1 percent to 265 million accesses.

According to the data revealed by the Markit's Purchasing Manager's Index, the rate of the downturn in Spanish manufacturing area eased to its slowest rate since January 2008 in Feb 2010 as exports helped increase new orders.

The country's financial system was fighting with recession during the last quarter of 2009 as many of its European neighbours' economic systems returned to growth.

Transportation minister Freddy Numberi and Maritime Affairs and Fisheries minister Fadel Muhammad will receive fishing training ship "Medidihang-03" from Spain`s Asturias Gondan Shipyard in the coming days.

According to sources, both the ministers will receive the ship when they will start their Spain tour starting from February 21-23.

Motorola Company has recently announced that is will launch Motorola Milestone in Spain at the end of March this year.

The announcement was made by the company in the Mobile World Congress in Spain. Moreover, the device will be available SIM-free starting from the end of March 2010, which means that they still have to look for a carrier partner.

In the meantime, no further information was provided by the company about the cost of the new device.

The second Turkey-Spain inter-government summit is all set to take place in the Spanish capital of Madrid.

According to the officials, summit is going to be a gesture by the present EU term president Spain as the nation will actally host summits with other nations in late June.

Moreover, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan will take part in the Madrid summit along with 10 other ministers.

In the meantime, both Turkey and Spain will ink two cooperation deals on health and diplomacy.

With rising demand for stainless steel a continued intensity of commodities stainless steel costs look ready to go up in the European markets.

According to some reports, Nickel close to the $20,000 per tonne mark and Molybdenum costs showing increases the numbers declared last week by the leading European mills it would be shocked if the prices are not increased.

In the mean time, there are rumors coming from the leading mills that base increases are likely to hike for new deliveries from the month of April and declaration could be made as soon as the 1st of March.

Peugeot Citroen in Spain recalled more than 2,000 cars accelerator pedal. According to sources, the recall is quite similar to that noticed by Toyota for eight models of its brand including the Aygo city.

The models include Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1, which is said to have some problem with its accelerator pedal. Moreover, the company has also announced that it will do a free update.

According to the statement issued by the car makers’ association ANFAC, the country’s car sales for the month of January increased by 18.1% as compared to the same period of 2009, but will decrease in the second half of this year as Spanish government subsidies fade away.

Moreover, the hike in car sales comes after a rise of 25.1% in the month of December and 37.3% in the month of November. Car sales decreased 17.9% in last year to 952,772 vehicles.