Today is the 329th day of 2012. There are 37 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

2005: In a potential blow to Caribbean markets, the European Union agrees on a major overhaul of its sugar subsidy programme, cutting prices by 36 per cent in a landmark deal that the EU said will strengthen its hand in upcoming world trade talks.

Other Events

1874: Barbed wire is patented by American Joseph F Glidden.

1936: Germany and Japan sign anti-Comintern pact.

1971: Hijacker Dan Cooper parachutes from a Northwest Airlines 727 over Washington state with $200,000 in ransom. His fate remains unknown.

1977: Archaeologist says tomb uncovered near Salonika, Greece, is that of Macedon’s King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.

1989: Elias Hrawi is elected president of Lebanon following assassination of Rene Mouawad; Czech Politburo resigns after massie protests.

1990: South Africa’s Pan-Africanist Congress announces it will join with African National Congress in opposing the white-led government.

1995: Irish voters decide to legalise divorce, passing a referendum by narrow margin.

1996: A court annuls election results for the Belgrade, Yugoslavia, city council where an opposition coalition appeared to have won a majority. More than 30,000 people demonstrate against the ruling.

1997: The Taliban rulers of Afghanistan agree to uproot the poppy crop, the source of half the world’s heroin supply.

1998: America Online confirms it will buy Netscape Communications in a deal worth $10 billion.

1999: After 16 months of negotiations, the European Union and Mexico reach an accord establishing the most comprehensive free trade deal ever negotiated by the European body and the first with a Latin American partner.

2002: Venezuelan and French Marines participate in Suriname’s Independence Day parade, marking 27 years since the country won its freedom from the Netherlands.

2007: Australia’s Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffers a humiliating defeat to the left-leaning opposition Labour Party head Kevin Rudd in elections.

2010: Anger and fear about Europe’s seemingly unstoppable debt crisis courses through the continent — striking workers shut down much of Portugal; Ireland proposes its deepest budget cuts in history; and seething Italian and British students clash with police over education cuts.

2011: Egypt’s military rulers reject protester demands for them to step down immediately and say they will start the first round of parliamentary elections on time next week, despite serious unrest in Cairo and other cities.

Today’s Birthdays

Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (1632-1677); Abdel-Illah, crown prince of Iraq (1913-1958); William F Buckley, US magazine publisher and conservative thinker (1925-2008); Alfredo Kraus, Spanish tenor (1927-1999); Arthur Chaskalson, first chief justice of South African Constitutional Court (1931-); Billy Connolly, Scottish actor/comedian (1942-).

— AP