Qatar eyes major global sporting role

LONDON (Reuters) - With its lavish Olympic headquarters next to the iconic Savoy hotel in one of London's poshest districts, Qatar is putting its money where its mouth in a bid to join the world's leading sporting nations.

The tiny oil and gas-rich Gulf state has for the duration of the Games converted an engineering institute on a bank of the River Thames into an adobe-walled traditional Qatari home, complete with wrought-iron Arab lamps and plush furniture.