Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Early Fetuses May Not Feel Pain: Study

Fetuses probably don't feel any pain until the final months of pregnancy, University of California, San Francisco researchers have concluded in a new study.

Their report, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, said that offering fetal pain relief during an abortion in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy was misguided and could cause the pregnant woman harm, according to an account of the study by the Associated Press.

The researchers said they reviewed dozens of studies and medical reports, concluding that fetuses probably didn't feel pain until about the seventh month of pregnancy, the AP reported.

Dr. Nancy Chescheir, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Vanderbilt University, praised the study, saying it would "help to develop some consensus" on when fetuses feel pain.

But others disputed the study's conclusions and called the research politically motivated. "They have literally stuck their hands into a hornet's nest," said University of Arkansas fetal pain researcher Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, who told the AP she believed fetuses as young as 20 weeks felt pain.

Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, JAMA's editor-in-chief, denied that publishing the review was politically motivated. "If I had a political agenda, I wouldn't pick fetal pain," she said.

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FDA Warns Stent Maker Over Failed Quality Tests

Eight stents made by Boston Scientific Corp. failed quality-control tests but were shipped anyway, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned the company in a letter published Tuesday.

Boston Scientific is the world's largest maker of stents, which are wire mesh devices used to keep arteries open after the vessels have been surgically cleared. The company caught the error and recalled the eight Taxus stents from five hospitals where they had been sent, the Bloomberg news service said.

Boston Scientific "has failed to implement procedures to assure that only devices approved for release are distributed," the Aug. 10 letter written by FDA district director Mark Lookabaugh said. The letter was published Tuesday on the FDA's Web site.

The stents were shipped after two company employees overrode a computer system, removing an electronic block that had prevented their release, Bloomberg reported.

A Boston Scientific spokesman labeled the errors "a shipping problem, not a manufacturing problem." Spokesman Charles Rudnick added that "none of the shipping errors resulted in any harm to patients." He said the company was working with the FDA to address any additional concerns the agency had.

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Fast-Food Restaurants Clustered Near Schools: Report

Nearly 80 percent of Chicago schools studied had a fast-food restaurant within a half mile, Harvard University researchers have found. They say the pattern probably exists in cities across the United States and may be contributing to the nation's obesity epidemic.

Writing in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health, the researchers said there were at least three times more fast-food restaurants located less than a mile from schools than would be expected if the restaurants were distributed randomly, the Associated Press reported.

The lead author of the article, Harvard and Children's Hospital Boston researcher Bryn Austin, said the study's results begged the question of whether fast-food restaurants were intentionally located near schools.

McDonald's Corp. spokesman Walt Riker said the company located its restaurants "in high-traffic areas like every other business, to serve customers. It has nothing to do with schools."

Burger King did not return phone calls seeking comment, the AP said.

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Lance Armstrong Denies New Doping Charge

Cycling legend Lance Armstrong used the performance-enhancing drug EPO to win his first Tour de France title in 1999, the French sports daily L'Equipe reported on Tuesday.

The claim, immediately denied by the seven-time champion, was the subject of four pages in the newspaper, which said "indisputable" traces of erythropoietin were found in six of Armstrong's urine samples taken during the 1999 race, according to a report in the International Herald Tribune.

Armstrong, 33, quit cycling after winning last month's Tour de France for a record seventh time. He has repeatedly rejected allegations of drug-taking that have surfaced since he recovered from cancer to become the sport's most successful rider. He has never failed a drug test.

"Yet again a European newspaper has reported that I have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs," Armstrong said in a statement on his Web site. "I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs... The article is nothing short of tabloid journalism."

The governing body of world cycling did not begin using a urine test for EPO until 2001. For years, it had been impossible to detect the drug, which builds endurance by enhancing the production of oxygen-rich red blood cells.

The tests on frozen urine samples from 1999 were done last year by the national anti-doping laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry to help scientists improve their detection methods, the newspaper said. L'Equipe said it had matched anonymous urine samples from that Tour with medical statements signed by doctors and said there were "characteristic, undeniable and consequent" signs of EPO in Armstrong's urine tests.

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Mad Cow Rules Spur Beef Recall

A Wisconsin processing plant is recalling a small shipment of beef that had been banned under mad cow disease rules.

The 1,856 pounds of beef came from a Canadian cow and was shipped to wholesalers in six states, the Associated Press reported. Inspectors had determined the cow was eligible for shipment, but a Canadian audit two weeks later said the cow was too old to be allowed inside the United States. The veterinarian who certified the cow has been suspended.

''There is a minimal chance, given the age of the animal and the health of the animal, that there was any risk whatsoever'' to people, Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the U.S. Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, told the wire service.

The U.S. restricts shipments to younger animals because infection levels from mad cow disease are believed to rise with age. The cutoff is 30 months of age.

Green Bay Dressed Beef of Green Bay processed the cow on Aug. 4 and distributed the meat to wholesalers in Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The USDA and the company are trying to find out how much beef wound up in stores.