SAO PAULO, Brazil — If she were an American 15-year-old, Gabrielly Sartori would almost certainly not be collecting baseball cards. But the soft-spoken, bespectacled Brazilian teenager has spent the last few weeks madly collecting their distant cousin, World Cup cards. The cards — which are really stickers — feature players, teams, coaches and even the South African stadiums that in mid-June will become the sporting focus of Planet Earth.

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leveled an indirect diplomatic blow at Brazil yesterday when she told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the U.N. Security Council’s permanent members had agreed upon a draft of sanctions against Iran.

SAO PAULO, Brazil — The sloped yard littered with pulverized construction material and guarded by a yelping red-haired mutt looks like a typical family compound in the over-populated northern zone of Sao Paulo. But inside it's instantly apparent the Silvas aren't an average working-class family: bright paintings of traditional Brazilian scenes cover the walls; sculptures of figures performing capoeira line the shelves.