Connie Barr, a Norwegian TV personality who made 'enlistment' films for the original vaccine trial, hosts the film. It outlines her change of heart as the evidence of medical misadventure began to build up.

Ms Barr says the films she made in the 80's to attract youth to participate in the vaccine experiment had a very strong effect. "The more I looked into the material, the clearer I saw this was an ugly story."

The film features leading medical experts in Norway who heavily criticize the Norwegian Institute of Public Health for withholding information on the dangers of the vaccine and the fact those who did get sick had to fight for years to get compensation.

"The Norwegian situation is so similar to New Zealand's it is scary," says Risk & Policy Analyst Ron Law.

The Norwegian parent vaccine is considered bio-identical to the MeNZB vaccine - to the extent that Norwegian bridging data was used in lieu of phase three trials.

Norwegian manufactured vaccine was also used in the majority of the trials in New Zealand and an unspecified amount was used in the final rollout.
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Researcher/Writer Barbara Sumner Burstyn comments New Zealand seems to be in a state of denial at the extent of the fraud surrounding the development and use of the vaccine. "From the highest levels of government to media and the medical profession, we seem to be desperate to believe everything is fine with this vaccine, despite copious evidence to the contrary."

The documentary reveals that New Zealand officials were warned about serious long-term adverse effects following the meningococcal vaccine in 2003. Officials systematically chose to keep quiet about those serious adverse effects.

"There has clearly been a cover-up by Ministry of Health officials and advisors that warrants a formal inquiry," says Ron Law.

The state-owned SUNA news agency said 50 troops drowned in the accident on Wednesday night as they were being transported from the southern Malakal town to their new base along the river.

A southern Sudan official said the toll was as high as 75.

"There were two diesel steamers and they crashed," said Joseph Dut, a member of the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

"One was carrying around 109 soldiers and we are hearing that up to 75 of those drowned immediately," he added.

After more than two decades of bitter civil war which claimed 2 million lives, the SPLM signed a peace deal in January 2005 with the Khartoum government. A coalition government was formed and an autonomous southern regional authority.

Under the deal, all militias were to join the SPLM's armed wing (the SPLA) or the national Sudanese Armed Forces. The SAF are in the process of withdrawing from the south and the SPLA from areas it controlled in the north under the deal.

During the war, river traffic was subjected to gunfire or taxes from militias.

"One male farmer every four days is committing suicide," Jeff Kennett, chairman of beyondblue, said on Thursday.

"My fear is that when under prolonged stress and when they see their assets totally denuded of value, that we will see an increase (in suicides)," Kennett told local radio.

The rate among male farmers and farm workers is more than twice the national average, the NSW Farmers Association says.

The figure is all the more worrying because only about 10 percent of Australia's 20 million population live in rural areas and the number has been declining for years as the rural economy struggles. The vast majority of Australians live in cities.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics suicide report says 2,098 Australians took their lives in 2004.

Crop losses stretch across the country, 92 percent of economically dominant New South Wales state is in drought, and farmers have started off-loading stock before the hot, dry summer when they would be forced to buy feed and water.

With an El Nino weather pattern, which will bring more dry weather and soaring temperatures, now on the horizon and little prospect of rain until early in 2007, rural hope is evaporating like water in Australia's mud-cracked dams and rivers.

Farmers' wives calling talk-back radio in the city describe their husbands' depression at trudging out into their dry paddocks, day after day, knowing they are losing money.

Prime Minister John Howard has announced a $350 million (US$263 million) aid package, but Kennett says farmers also need help coping with the depression and stress of years of drought.

BREAKING INTO TEARS

A team of 60 psychologists should be sent out for the next six months "to help address the anxiety, stress, depression being faced by many farmers," particularly men, said Kennett.

Australia's farmers are typically tough, resilient and resourceful -- qualities that have enabled generations of country families to tough it out in hard times of drought and bushfires.

But these same qualities also prevent many from seeking help, particularly for depression, because they are worried that asking for help could be seen as weak or shameful.

Rural counselor Liz Tomlinson-Reynolds said she receives up to 12 calls a day from depressed farmers.

"They're actually breaking into tears and you know, obviously, terribly, terribly distressed and that's over the phone. The ones that I see personally are no more stoic," Tomlinson-Reynolds told radio from northwest New South Wales.

More than 300,000 rural Australians experience depression each year, says beyondblue, but only a small number seek help.

A beyondblue study found several factors contributed to rural stress, such as isolation, drought-induced financial difficulties, stock loss, pressure of decision-making and the constant mental and physical demands of farming.

But rural communities are the least well-equipped to deal with mental health problems, with limited access to counseling, said the New South Wales Farmers Association.

"There are other facets of severe drought that are unable to be measured in production or dollar terms," the association said in a discussion paper on the drought released on Thursday.

"These are the social ramifications testing not only the farmers but all people on the frontline of drought," it said.

"Depression, isolation, alcohol abuse, family breakdown and suicide rates in regional and farming communities are all exacerbated in time of drought."