BIG THREE AND MADESH MORCHA DISCUSS A FEDERAL STRUCTURE UPDATE Kathmandu, 25 April: Leaders of the Big Three and Madesh Morcha held inconclusive discussions Wednesday on a federal structure and decided to continue discussions Thursday afternoon. Leaders discussed the number of provinces, border and related issues. Main opposition NC said discussions centered around forming six to seven provinces. Parties held inter and intra-party discussions in last minute give and take to come to n agreement on a constitution. NC central leaders and lawmakers opposed an executive president as other parties suggested empowering an elected president and prime minister. nnnn WOMEN DEMAND PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION Kathmandu, 25 April: A team of women Constituent Assembly members including the indigenous and dalit communities have demanded Chairman of the Constitutional Committee (CC), Nilambar Acharya to fully ensure their proportional representation in new constitution, RSS reports. A team of the CA members including Kalpana Rana, Pratibha Rana, Prithvi Subba Rana, Bashali Jha, Tilak Pariyar, and Mohammad Siddiqi had reached the CC Chairman Acharya to submit a memorandum to this regard. Meanwhile, a gathering of the team recently decided to expert pressure on the concerned parties to ensure the participation of women, indigenous nationalities, dalit, Madhesi and Muslims in each state mechanism based on population. CA member Tilak Pariyar said the gathering had been univocal on demanding 10 percent more compensatory representation for dalit community. nnnn GOVT. EXTENDS RS. 750M LOAN TO NOC TO IMPORT PETROL AMID SHORTAGE Kathmandu, 25 April: Government Wednesday again extended Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) a Rs.750 million load to import POL products from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) which reduced exports by as much as 30 percent after NOC failure to settle dues. Shortages were created and long queues of motorists and motorcyclists waited at filling stations to get petrol. There was no shortage of petrol and shortage of LPG cylinders continue for ore than three months causing extreme hardship o consumers. Nnnn STOCK PRICES CONTINUE TO RALLY Kathmandu, 25 April: Stock market rallied Wednesday for the fourth day in weekly five-day trading as prices gained more than 21 points. Trading was suspended at 1.05 in the afternoon as prices gained more than five percent. Stock prices crossed the magic 400-mark index Wednesday and closed at 409 points. Share prices have rallied after hopes of concluding delayed peace process and promulgating a constitution by 27 May. Nnnn TWO NEPALI SECURITY GUARDS KILLED IN GUJARAT Kathmandu, 25 April: Two Nepali security guards were killed Tuesday in a motorcycle accident near Ahmedadab in Gugarat, Times News Network reports. The motorcycle went out of control after hitting a speed breaker. Raj Bahadur Thapa,22, Gopal Khatri,21, Tilak Khatri,20, and Vijay Bahadur , 19, were on the moorcycle. Gopal Khatri died instantly and Ram Bahadur succumbed to injuries in hospital. Nnnn