Odds and ends

• Reuters: Venezuela-Cuba “cooperation agreements” worth $3 billion signed in Havana for a variety of economic and other projects, including formation of seven joint state companies.

• ESPN: Aroldis Chapman’s fastball was 96 miles per hour in a bullpen session he held in Houston before scouts from “about half the major league teams.”

• [Corrected] The Senate approved a spending bill that includes a provision affecting U.S. farm sales to Cuba; it returns to the pre-Bush Administration definition of the “cash in advance” requirement, so payment will now be required before goods are delivered in Cuba as opposed to before they are shipped from the United States. This change will be in effect only until the end of the current fiscal year – September 30, 2010. Senator Menendez spoke in opposition but voted for the bill, as Anya Landau French explains at The Havana Note. [An earlier version of this post reported in error that the bill also allows Cuba to make its payments by direct wire transfer to U.S. banks. My error.]