The Best and the Worst of the British Press

L O N D O N, May 25 -- Britons living near burial sites for cattle culled in the foot-and-mouth outbreak may face another cow-related problem, the Daily Express reported today.

The government's top adviser on mad cow disease, Professor Peter Smith, has warned that people drinking water from areas close to such burial sites are at risk of developing the human form of mad cow disease.

He argues the buried cattle may have been infected with mad cow disease.

There are 90 burial sites across the country where high-risk cattle, those above the age of 5, have been buried. The contamination risk is generally around one in a million, but could be as high as one in 200,000 in areas where the cattle corpses were not incinerated first, the paper reported.

"Next to a burial pit wouldn't be the first place I would want to live," Smith said after meeting with government officials. The Ministry of Agriculture said Thursday night it has not ruled out digging up burial sites.

Mad Cows Lurking in the Shadows

The human form of mad cow disease has claimed its 100th victim in Britain, the Daily Mail writes. There are fears the pace of the disease is increasing, suggesting many more people could be at risk.

No Fooling Nature

Danish researchers are calling the "placebo effect" bunk, The Independent reports. The researchers analyzed 114 published studies that used placebos. The studies were carried out between 1946 and 1998 and involved 7,500 patients.

In each of these studies, a third of the patients were not given any pills at all and many of these people reported feeling better. A doctor who worked on the study said the placebo effect could be due to researchers seeing what they wanted to see, or patients trying to please the researchers.

"The idea that placebo causes dramatic improvements in patients is a myth. There are just as many trials where there is a negative effect .. as where there is a positive effect," the doctor said.

She Is the Strongest Link