The British and Irish governments have approached a former Canadian supreme court judge to head the investigation into a number of controversial killings North and South of the Border, according to reliable sources.
Mr Justice Peter Cory has been asked to investigate allegations of collusion into the loyalist killings of Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson and Robert Hamill, the INLA killing of LVF leader Billy Wright, and the IRA killings of Lord Justice and Lady Gibson and RUC officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan.