Nepal names new king after Dipendra dies

Prince Gyanendra has been named as Nepal's new king, hours after his nephew Prince Dipendra died in hospital.

Prince Dipendra had been on a life support machine since killing most of the royal family on Friday night and then turning a gun on himself.

The State Council, which deals with royal affairs, met in the morning and proclaimed Prince Gyanendra, who had been acting king, as the new monarch of the poor Himalayan nation still stunned from the killings.

The council confirmed that King Dipendra, the former crown prince whom officials privately blame for shooting his parents, the king and queen, and other members of the family had died early on Monday.

"The king died very early this morning," a woman State Council member told the Associated Press.

At the palace, where any coronation ceremony would take place, police said they were told to make tight security arrangements.

Many Nepalese had said they would accept Prince Gyanendra as king because they could not accept Dipendra, who they blamed for the royal shooting.

The 29-year-old Dipendra had reportedly caused the massacre because of an argument in which his mother, the queen, rejected his choice of a bride because of her clan.

Prince Gyanendra issued a statement on Sunday that only served to confuse matters by saying the royal killings were the result of "accidental" automatic weapons fire at the palace.

Previously, numerous officials had said privately that Dipendra had been the gunman in the massacre, but publicly they've stayed distant from that explanation, perhaps because even though Dipendra was unconscious he was technically the king in Nepal and monarchs are above reproach.