Gunmen kill Belfast soldier

A soldier on leave from his base in Cyprus was shot and killed in north Belfast last night. Ranger Steven Waller, 23, a member of the Royal Irish Regiment, was hit in the chest and legs and died later in hospital.

He was visiting his mother in the Old Park district when he was shot. Two gunmen, thought to be from the IRA, opened fire after his wife tried to slam the door in their faces. The gunmen escaped in a red Ford Sierra hijacked earlier in the republican Ardoyne district. The vehicle was later found abandoned.