Nepal's parliament elected lawmaker Bidhya Bhandari as the country's first female president Wednesday, after the adoption of a landmark constitution last month.

The former defense minister defeated her opponent Kul Bahadur Gurung by 327 to 214 votes to become the Himalayan nation's ceremonial head of state.

KP Sharma Oli was sworn in as Nepal's prime minister on Monday, tasked with unifying the quake-hit country after a new constitution triggered deadly protests, a border blockade and a nationwide fuel shortage.

Oli, a former deputy prime minister who heads one of Nepal's main communist parties, is credited with having pushed through a deal on the constitution after years of disagreement.

Nepal's new constitution was meant to end centuries of inequality, but instead it has sparked deadly protests and a trade blockade by ethnic minorities that has forced nationwide fuel rationing.

More than 40 people have been killed in clashes between police and protesters representing ethnic minorities who say a new federal structure laid out in the constitution will leave them under-represented in the national parliament.

Hundreds of protesters blocked a major trading checkpoint between India and Nepal Friday, cutting off vital supplies to the landlocked Himalayan nation, as anger deepened over the country's new constitution.

The protesters, who belong to the Madhesi community, are angry about plans to divide the country into seven federal provinces under the charter adopted on Sunday. 

Nepal Sunday adopted a new constitution aimed at bolstering its transformation from a Hindu monarchy to a secular democracy, as violent protests raged against some of the terms of the charter.

Firecrackers went off in celebration in Kathmandu as President Ram Baran Yadav announced the adoption of the constitution, the first to be drafted by elected representatives.

Nepal on Thursday urged India to push for justice as it investigates a top Saudi diplomat accused of holding captive and raping two Nepalese maids, after he left the country under diplomatic immunity.

Majed Hassan Ashoor, the Saudi Embassy's First Secretary in New Delhi, is accused of beating and sexually abusing the two women, aged 30 and 50, while they were imprisoned in his apartment outside New Delhi. 

A four-year-old boy was among four people killed late Tuesday when police in Nepal opened fire on a crowd of people demonstrating against a new national constitution due to be introduced this week.

Police said they opened fire after protesters threw petrol bombs and stones at security forces, attacked police vehicles and vandalized a local police station in the southern district of Rupandehi.

Five demonstrators and a police officer died in clashes in southern Nepal as protests intensified against a proposed new constitution, police said Saturday.  

Protesters dragged a wounded police officer out of an ambulance and killed him on Friday in an area of southern Nepal where anger is running high after four demonstrators were shot dead by security forces.

The officer was being taken to hospital after being beaten by protestors on his way to work in the southeastern district of Mahottari when a mob forced the ambulance to stop before dragging him out and torching the vehicle.

The United Nations called Thursday for dialogue and an end to violence in Nepal following clashes between security forces and protesters opposed to a proposed new constitution that have left 19 people dead.

Anger has been building for weeks in southern Nepal after lawmakers struck a breakthrough deal on a new constitution, spurred by April's devastating earthquake.