Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste said Friday he was overjoyed that two colleagues have been released from an Egyptian jail but said that with a retrial pending, it was too soon to celebrate.

Mohamed Fahmy, who is Canadian, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were freed on bail Thursday after more than 400 days in prison after an appeals court ordered a retrial.

More than a million Qataris were given a day off work Tuesday to take part in a nationwide day of sport amid growing concern at obesity levels in the super-rich Gulf state.

Although the annual Qatar National Sport Day is meant to be a fun event with beach volleyball, jogging, fitness boot camps and even a screening of the boxing movie "Rocky", it contains a serious message.

A Qatar-based senior Hamas leader on Monday praised the Gulf state's "courageous" foreign minister, Khalid al-Attiyah, after an apparent spat with Israel's intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz at a German security conference.

In a statement, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's political bureau in Doha, backed Qatar's foreign minister for his "strong, courageous statements and response to the lies of the 'Zionists', and his defense of Hamas and the resistance during the Munich security conference".

Qatar want Bayern Munich head coach Pep Guardiola to lead the country at the 2022 World Cup, according to reports in Germany.

Guardiola’s face adorns the front of Sport Bild on Wednesday morning, with the paper claiming that he could be the subject of a lucrative approach from the Gulf nation.

Secretary of State John Kerry Monday praised Qatar for its help in trying to resolve the crisis in Yemen, amid hints the U.S. is in contact with Shiite rebels through go-betweens. 

The Huthi militia Sunday set a three-day deadline for political parties to resolve the power vacuum in Yemen left after the president and prime minister offered to resign last month.

Qatar Airways on Friday said it had purchased almost 10 percent of IAG, parent of British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia, the second European entry by a Gulf carrier.

"As part of efforts to enhance operations and strengthen existing commercial ties... Qatar Airways has acquired a 9.99 percent stake in IAG," the company said in a statement.

Syria's opposition "embassy" in Qatar began Thursday to renew expired passports for some of the estimated 60,000 Syrians living in the tiny Gulf country, its chief said.

Nizar Haraki, the opposition envoy, said this would help thousands of Syrians who fled the country to escape the conflict, which has killed at least 200,000 people since it erupted in 2011.

Qatar's handball team created history in the desert on Wednesday qualifying for their first ever world championships semi-final after beating Germany 26-24 in a superb encounter,

The win sparked wild celebrations among players and crowd, which included the country's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani.

Relatives of an American schoolteacher murdered in Qatar have told a court in the Gulf state they do not want her alleged killer to be executed as they are "not cruel".

A judge in Qatar ruled on Sunday that the Pennsylvania-based family of Jennifer Brown could decide whether the Kenyan security guard charged with her murder should face the death penalty.

A Qatari court ruled Sunday that the parents of an American teacher murdered in the Gulf state should decide whether her alleged killer is executed.

The Pennsylvania-based family of Jennifer Brown can choose between the death penalty, compensation -- "blood money" under Islam law --  or a pardon for the Kenyan security guard charged with first degree murder, the judge ruled.