World Briefs

CHINA-US Washington envoys press China to cut excess steel production that is flooding global markets and to reach a diplomatic settlement to territorial disputes in the South China Sea, as the two sides open a high-level dialogue.

SPACE Astronauts opened the world’s first inflatable space habitat yesterday and floated inside. NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams swung open the door to the newly expanded chamber yesterday and was the first to enter. The room — called the Bigelow Activity Activity Module, or BEAM — arrived at the International Space Station in April, packed in the trunk of a capsule loaded with supplies. It was inflated just over a week ago.

THAILANDFour men who brutally attacked a British family vacationing in Thailand have been sentenced to two years in prison for the assault, which was captured on video and widely shared on social media.

MEXICO’s ruling party seemed headed for stinging defeats in some of 12 governorships up for grabs in state elections, according to preliminary vote counts yesterday. Hobbled by corruption scandals, violence and a weak economy, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party lost four states it has never lost before, including the northern border state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Texas.

USA Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg briefly found his Twitter account hijacked, as were at least two of his other social media accounts. Zuckerberg’s Facebook account and password were not compromised, the company said in a statement; his account on Facebook-owned Instagram was also unaffected.

ITALY An anti-establishment candidate in Rome has comfortably clinched a runoff mayoral election slot, as Romans disgusted by corruption scandals and deteriorating city services largely turned away from traditional left and right parties which governed the Italian capital for decades.

ROMANIA’s Social Democrats came out on top in Sunday’s local elections, held months before the European Union’s second-poorest member votes for a new parliament. Ex-Prime Minister Victor Ponta’s Social Democrats won the Bucharest mayor’s office and all of the capital’s six districts, the first such victory for a single party since the fall of communism, preliminary results show.

SOUTH SUDAN The first of 379 British troops have arrived in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, to serve in a United Nations peacekeeping mission. A five-person advance team landed Friday while the rest will begin arriving in the coming weeks, joining 11,990 peacekeepers from other nations, said Ariane Quentier, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in South Sudan.