[JURIST] Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma signed a decree Thursday effectively firing the country's Prosecutor-General, according to Russia's Interfax news agency. Gennady Vasilyev had submitted his resignation Wednesday, which Kuchma had accepted as part of a parliamentary deal to pass a package of electoral law and constitutional reforms opening the way for a new presidential vote on December 26. Vasilyew had been sharply criticized by opposition politicians for not investigating allegations of fraud in the country's disputed presidential run-off in November, and for not initiating an investigation after pro-government regional leaders in the eastern parts of Ukraine threatened to secede. In a statement, however, Vasilyev claimed that he "took much effort to prevent the prosecutor bodies from being involved in political bias". The UK Press Association has more.