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The death toll is climbing after two earthquakes that struck western China early Monday.

More than 70 people are dead and at last 400 others are injured, the BBC says. According to The Associated Press, China's state media say the death toll stands at 75.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the first temblor registered a strong 5.9 magnitude. It struck around 7:45 a.m., local time (Monday evening in the eastern U.S.). The second quake, with a magnitude of 5.6, was felt about an hour later.

The BBC adds that "at least 5,600 houses in the province's Zhangxian county are seriously damaged and 380 have collapsed, while some areas suffered from power cuts or mobile communications being disrupted, the earthquake administration added." The area is about 770 miles west of Beijing in Gansu province.

China's Global Times writes that "days of downpours and a series of aftershocks have added difficulties to rescue efforts. ... Aftershocks and minor landslides with falling rocks were seen in the mountainous region following the quake."

In the old days, when a book came out it just had to compete with other books. But these days a book has to compete not only with other books, but also with blog posts and tweets and tumblrs and everything else in written form. There's only so much that readers feel like reading, and as a result, every year many good books get lost under a tide of prose. How many times does a writer go to a party and someone asks, "When is your book coming out?" And the answer is, "Uh, six months ago." And then there's an awkward, horrible silence, and the person asking the question mutters something and rushes off to refresh his drink.

The publication of every good book should ideally be met with a triumphal, trumpet fanfare. But that doesn't always happen. I looked back over many of the books that have been published this year and selected five that deserve a little more fanfare.

Israel said Saturday that it's prepared to release a number of Palestinian prisoners following a breakthrough in talks brokered by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Yuval Steiniz, Israel's intelligence and strategic affairs minister, said the release would involve "heavyweight prisoners in jail for decades". He said the prisoners would be freed soon. (Note: the translation used by The Associated Press has it as "hardcore" instead of "heavyweight").

The remarks follow an announcement Friday night by Kerry that Israeli and Palestinian officials would meet soon in Washington to work out the resumption of peace negotiations that broke down in 2008.

As NPR's Emily Harris reports from Jerusalem, releasing long-term inmates from Israeli custody has been a key issue for Palestinian officials in order to restart talks. She reports that although the exact terms for resuming negotiations have yet to be formalized, minister Steiniz "says his government did not agree to stop Israeli settlements, or define future borders before negotiations start."

Kerry, speaking in Amman, said the two sides had agreed in principle to restarting talks, but he declined to provide details. He told reporters that the "best way to give these negotiations a chance is to keep them private."

Talks could resume in the next week or so "if everything goes as expected," Kerry said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who met with Kerry on Friday, said in a statement that "some details still need to be worked out."

On the release of Palestinian prisoners, the BBC reports:

"While the number of detainees to be freed is unclear, one Palestinian official said discussions had earlier focused on the release of 350 prisoners over a period of months, including around 100 men held since before 1993, when Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo peace accords.

According to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, 4,817 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails."

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition has won a decisive election victory, extending its control to the upper house of parliament and setting the stage for the country's first stable government in years.

Based on exit polls, national broadcaster NHK predicts that Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, New Komeito, will take 71 seats, giving them a total of 130 seats, eight more than needed for a majority in the chamber.

The election, which gives the ruling coalition control of both houses of the Diet for the first time in six years, is seen as a mandate on Abe's economic program, including aggressive monetary and fiscal stimulus programs that have helped spur growth after decades of near stagnation in Japan.

While The Japan Times notes that turnout was low, it says the election can be "viewed as a gauge of support for [Abe's] radical deflation-busting economic strategy dubbed 'Abenomics.'"

However, Abe's hawkish foreign policy has caused tensions with regional neighbors China and South Korea.

The Associated Press reports:

"The Liberal Democrats' "Recover Japan" platform calls a strong economy, strategic diplomacy and unshakable national security under the Japan-U.S. alliance, which allows for 50,000 American troops to be stationed in Japan.

The party also favors revising the country's pacifist constitution, drafted by the United States after World War II, to give Japan's military a larger role — a message that alarms the Chinese government but resonates with some Japanese voters troubled by territorial disputes with China and South Korea and widespread distrust of an increasingly assertive Beijing."