US gaming giant Las Vegas Sands is “very actively pursuing” plans to build a Las Vegas-style casino strip in Spain at a cost of up to €15 billion, its chief said yesterday.

North Korea’s plutonium-producing reactor could be shut down in three weeks’ time in a deal agreed with the US, a top nuclear envoy said today.

Macau authorities are prepared to unblock frozen North Korean funds, a US Treasury Department statement said today.

North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator told US envoys today that his government would immediately invite UN nuclear inspectors into the country if £12.7m (€18.6m) in disputed funds were released.

Envoys met in China today to hammer out a detailed schedule for dismantling North Korea’s nuclear programmes amid efforts to resolve a sticking point over North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank.