World IN BRIEF : INDIA : Quake Death Toll Scaled Back to 9,748

The official death toll from the Sept. 30 earthquake in southern India was 9,748, Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar said. Pawar, the highest elected official in the state, said estimates of up to 30,000 casualties were “highly exaggerated.” Army units that led relief and rescue operations have extricated all bodies from the rubble and fixed the death toll at 9,748, he said. He did not say why a high toll was initially reported. But government officials in the area hit by the quake said privately that in the confusion, casualty figures had been duplicated in several villages.