London Olympic organizers have added an online journey planner and travel pages to the 2012 Games website to give spectators almost a year to plan their trips to the venues.

The planner will allow ticket holders to plot routes by rail, bus, river and London underground from anywhere in Britain. With organizers aiming to eliminate private vehicle use from Games-time travel, the site will also give routes for cycling and walking.

Religious-linked violence and abuse rose around the world between 2006 and 2009, with Christians and Muslims the most common targets, according to a private U.S. study released Tuesday.

"Over the three-year period studied, incidents of either government or social harassment were reported against Christians in 130 countries (66 percent) and against Muslims in 117 countries (59 percent)," said the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life study.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday strongly condemned what he called the "savage" crackdown by British police on rampaging youths, the state television's website reported.

"This savage treatment of people is absolutely unacceptable, and British statesmen must hear the voice of the people and grant them freedoms," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.

Tests that measure DNA in a pregnant woman's blood work well for telling the sex of a baby after seven weeks' gestation without posing danger to the fetus, a U.S. study said Tuesday.

The meta-analysis of previous studies on the topic suggests that using cell-free fetal DNA from the mother's blood is more accurate than a urine test or sonogram and is safer than amniocentesis.

Youths smashed their way into stores and torched cars in central England on Tuesday, police said, as Britain's worst riots for decades entered a fourth night.

A gang of about 200 hurled missiles at police in riot gear, set vehicles alight and smashed shops in the town of West Bromwich, near Birmingham, Britain's second-biggest city, according to police and a BBC report.

Emergency services worked to restore order to a London district Sunday after rioters torched vehicles and buildings and looted shops there in response to the fatal shooting of a local man by police.

Eight injured police officers, one with a head injury, were receiving hospital treatment following the violence in Tottenham, north London, late on Saturday, which sparked condemnation from Prime Minister David Cameron's office.

Global banking giant HSBC said Tuesday it would hire thousands of people in emerging markets by 2014 as it looked particularly to Asia's booming financial sector to power future growth.

"We are planning to hire up to 15,000 people in emerging markets over the next three years," the bank's Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver told a press briefing in Hong Kong Tuesday.

Two British nationals, a man and a woman, who were detained by NATO forces in Afghanistan last month have been released, the Ministry of Defense in London said Tuesday.

"We can confirm, in accordance with UK detention policy, that two individuals detained by ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) forces in mid-July were released from detention in Kandahar on 29 July," a spokesman said.

As reports of a brutal military crackdown on the flashpoint protest city of Hama unfurled on Sunday, Britain, Germany, France and Italy condemned the violence while a U.S. diplomat said it was "full-on warfare."

Syrian forces killed nearly 140 people on Sunday including 100 when the army stormed Hama to crush dissent on the eve of Ramadan, activists said.

British researchers looking at the causes of chronic fatigue syndrome have received death threats from protesters angry at their focus on possible mental triggers, a report said Friday.

Several scientists researching the condition, which is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), say they are being subjected to a campaign of harassment and abuse, the BBC reported.