The British and Irish governments have announced the appointment of a retired Canadian judge to examine controversial murder cases in the North involving allegations of collusion.
Judge Peter Cory (76), who retired from the Canadian Supreme Court three years ago, will oversee investigations into six killings, including the murder of the solicitors, Mr Pat Finucane and Ms Rosemary Nelson, in 1989 and 1999 respectively, and that of the Loyalist Volunteer Force leader, Billy Wright, in 1997.
He will also investigate allegations of Provisional IRA collusion with gardaí in the murder of Lord Justice Maurice Gibson and his wife, Lady Cicely, in a 500lb landmine attack near the Border in 1987.
Allegations of collusion in the Provisional IRA gun attack on two senior RUC officers, Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan in 1989, will also be examined.
The sixth case under investigation will centre on whether RUC officers failed to intervene when a Catholic father of two, Mr Robert Hamill, was beaten and kicked to death by loyalists in Portadown in 1997.
Mr Justice Cory's appointment is part of a measure agreed during last year's Weston Park political negotiations. He said: "I am to review all the papers in each case, including the records of earlier investigations. I am also to interview anyone I think can assist the examination and report as quickly as possible with any recommendations, particularly if I consider it appropriate the holding of a public inquiry."
The Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, said the British government was committed to co-operating fully with the investigation.