The World Today

There's been a sombre and respectful pause in political debate in Federal Parliament this morning to remember the 50th anniversary of the referendum that granted Indigenous Australians full citizenship. The Prime Minister and Opposition Leader spoke of the long struggle against injustice that led to constitutional change in 1967 and urged modern Indigenous leaders gathering in Uluru today to carry forward the struggle.

The Federal Opposition is today announcing new measures aimed at cracking down on dodgy company directors involved in what's known as 'phoenixing'. In a nutshell, phoenixing involves a company director stripping assets from a business before it goes broke, not paying workers and creditors, but then simply opening another company with a different name and carrying on trading. Labor says one way to prevent the practice would be to issue every Australian company director with an identification number, so authorities can more easily track their activities.

RSL NSW has a new leader, with a heavy weight of expectation upon him. Iraq and Afghanistan veteran James Brown is president-elect of the League's state branch after a vote yesterday. He inherits the mantle in an organisation that's under investigation by police, regulators and outside inquiries, over allegations of financial misconduct. James Brown spoke with reporter Angela Lavoipierre after the vote about what he hopes to change.

The former CIA director, John Brennan, says that he warned Russia against meddling in the presidential election during a call to the head of the Russian intelligence service in August last year. In explosive revelations, he has told a White House intelligence committee that he is the first American official to call out the Russians for their activities.

Schapelle Corby will be deported to Australia on Saturday, 12 years after she was convicted of importing marijuana to Indonesia. But Indonesia's tough drug laws don't seem to have affected the drugs market in Bali, where much harder substances than marijuana are sold on the streets and dealers boast of their connections to police.

The World Today's Eleanor Hall talks with entrepreneur and technology author Steve Sammartino about the out-of-court settlement between Apple and Nokia over patent fees charged by the Finnish phone pioneer; anti-trust fines brought against Facebook by the European Union over data merging with its acquired app, WhatsApp; and the upcoming vote by the Federal Communications Commission in the US to vote over net neutrality, which could change how people over the world use the internet.

Australian entrepreneurs are becoming increasingly ambitious in trying to find a problem in need of a solution. Tech entrepreneurs fill the floor at a technology expo in Sydney, each with dreams of making it big from a killer app. But a start-up expert warns only some of the fledgling businesses will survive.

The longest serving James Bond secret agent has died, after a short illness. Sir Roger Moore was suave, charismatic, clam, and had dashing looks that made him irresistible and enchanting as 007. He was also adored for his work off-screen, in the promotion of human rights. In fact, it's his charity work that saw him knighted in 2003.

At least 19 people have been killed and more than 50 wounded in an explosion at the Manchester Arena in the north of England. The blast, which British police are treating as a terrorist attack, occurred at the end of a performance by American pop star Ariana Grande. Conflicting reports place the explosion either in or outside the foyer of the venue. According to reports, the device may have been detonated by a male suicide attacker.

The explosion at the Manchester Arena is not the first time in recent years that a concert or large-scale venue has been the target of a terror attack. Neil Fergus, CEO of the Intelligent Risks group, says that last year's attack at the Bataclan in Paris, along with attempted terrorist attacks in Hannover and Paris, has resulted in a greater emphasis on perimeter security and screening at large sporting and concert venues in Australia and abroad.