Nepal in fresh turmoil as president declines to sign citizenship law

FILE PHOTO: President of Nepal Bidhya Devi Bhandari speaks during the COP24 UN Climate Change Conference 2018 in Katowice, Poland December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A clash between Nepal's government and its head of state over controversial citizenship legislation threw the nascent republic into turmoil on Wednesday, after President Bidhya Devi Bhandari refused to sign proposed amendments in the law.

The bill proposed, among other changes, to give citizenship certificates to children whose parents' whereabouts were not known. Under the amendments, children born to a Nepali mother but whose father is unknown could get citizenship documents after the mother makes a declaration.