Plans to allow couples to share maternity leave have been attacked by business leaders.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, has outlined plans to allow fathers to take up to ten months paternity leave in an effort to address what he describes as “Edwardian” attitudes to childcare and traditional family roles.

In a speech at the Demos thinktank today, Mr Clegg outlined plans to build on reforms announced by Harriet Harman to allow parents to share parental leave.

He said: “Right now, when a child is born, fathers are entitled to just a paltry two weeks of paternity leave. These rules patronise women and marginalise men. They’re based on a view of life in which mothers stay at home and fathers are the only breadwinners. That’s

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Here is an article on housing in Spain (in Spanish): Aquí vivo solo (ht Jim)

Google translate page:

There is only life in a corner with nothing around, rather than highways, roads, farmland, a corner living Paula and Pavel and another 1,200 people. Un 4% de lo previsto. 4% of schedule. Hay muchas formas de vivir solo. There are many ways to live alone. Esta es una de ellas. This is one of them. La urbanización fue proyectada para 30.000, más de un tercio de la población de Guadalajara capital. The complex was designed for 30,000 …

Check out the photos and captions too! The one guy has a golf course to himself … at least the grass is green.

Earlier: Schedule for Week of January 16th

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Customers of energy giant E.ON face a 9% increase in the price of electricity and a 3% rise in the price of gas from 4 February.

The supplier blamed rising wholesale costs which it says have risen by 35% since last spring and said the increase will add around 16p a day to its dual fuel tariffs.

E.ON is the fifth of the “big six” energy suppliers to raise its prices since the start of the winter after British Gas, Scottish Power, npower and Scottish & Southern Energy all announced price hikes over the last few months. EDF Energy has said that their prices will be frozen until March.

The energy regulator Ofgem is currently investigating the sector after complaints from customers that energy costs do not appear to fall as quickly or sharply as they rise when wholesale costs are low. A r

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The rising commodity prices, strong New Taiwan dollar and labor costs have increased margin pressure for component makers in the notebook manufacturing chain. Quanta’s recent decision was only the tip of the iceberg and price hikes are almost certain during the first half of this year, according to Compal. Makers of component like PCB, shell, connectors, heat dispenser modules, power supply modules, etc. started the push to increase their margins last year, and some may have already upped the costs during before last year finished. Widespread hikes among parts makers this year are thus not a surprise, Compal spokesperson said.

The OEM price hike is expected to offset roughly 70 to 80 percent of the rise in production cost, according to international market analysts, and should help improve the bottom line for OEMs like Quanta.

HP was said to be the first notebook brand name to accept price hikes requested by its OEMs, a concession that would likely to include not just Quanta but also Honhai Precision and Inventec as beneficiaries.

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Brazil’s flexible plastic packaging industry is expected to grow 7% in 2011 compared with last year driven mainly by strong demand from the food packaging segment, national flexible plastic packaging industry association Abief president, Alfredo Schmitt, told BNamericas.

The country’s improving disposable income will also contribute to growth this year, the executive said.

For 2010, Abief estimates growth of 10% for the flexible plastic packaging industry in terms of revenues and volumes. In 2009, the sector generated revenues of 9.02bn reais (US$5.33bn) and output totaled 1.51Mt.

Last year, the industry benefitted from the favorable economic environment and rising demand, but companies operated with tight margins. “In addition to raw materials price hikes, increasing imports of plastic products had an effect on local producers,” said Schmitt.

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