Roger Stone, an agricultural climatologist with the Queensland government, suggested that "extreme statements' from scientists about the coming ENSO event had triggered suicides in the Australian agricultural community. Recent rains have broken a drought that had threatened eastern Australia's wheat crop. Officials still predict a 28 % reduction in winter crops compared to the previous year. Stone suggested that there is not a direct relationship between strength of an ENSO event and rainfall in Australia, so the present event may not spell doom for Australia's crops. He gave no details of the alleged ENSO-triggered suicides. after Reuters