News in Brief: Yeltsin Fires Three More Officials

MOSCOW -- President Boris Yeltsin fired three cabinet ministers for failing to reverse Russia's economic and social ills, but the government's top reformers, Boris Nemtsov and Anatoly Chubais, were untouched by the shake-up.

The firings came three days after Yeltsin warned that the "culprits" responsible for Russia's woes would not be kept in the government. His office said he had dismissed Deputy Prime Minister Valery Serov, Transportation Minister Nikolai Tsakh and Education Minister Vladimir Kinelyov.