Good sentence
1)The story of the pencil starts with graphite(a soft black substance that is a kind of carbon, used in pencils, paints, and electrical equipment).
ex)This artificial graphite in order to use in nuclear reactors.

2)Over in France, 
Over in Japan, their car manufacturing is still top of the world.

3)Meanwhile(with something else is happening), over in America
ex)Meanwhile, Japan is figuring out to the recover from earthquake.