Bombing Suspect Charged

A man charged with killing three people in a nail-bomb attack made a brief court appearance in London Monday.

David Copeland did not enter a plea during Monday's five-minute hearing. He spoke only to confirm his address, and was then returned to jail.

In addition to the three fatalities, more than 70 others were hurt in Friday night's attack at a gay pub in London.

Police have also charged Copeland in connection with two other nail-bombings in London last month.

White-supremacist groups had claimed responsibility for one of the bombings, but police say Copeland has no apparent connection to the groups.

Copeland, a 22-year-old engineer, was arrested early Saturday at his home at Cove, southwest of London. He worked alone in all three bombings and was not a member of the neo-Nazi groups that claimed responsibility, authorities said.

Nineteen of the more than 70 people injured in Friday's explosion remained hospitalized, including six in critical condition. Among the victims were people who had limb amputations and others with severe burns.

Police said they had seized "combustible materials" from the suspect's house, and that he appeared to be the man captured on closed circuit TV in Brixton who was suspected of planting that bomb there.

In the pub bombing, witnesses reported seeing a man with a blond goatee leaving a bag in the Admiral Duncan moments before the explosion. Police said the bomb was a "relatively rudimentary and crude" device about the size of a shoebox, packed with nails and other metallic objects.

Two of those killed in the pub in the heart of London's Soho district were identified Sunday as a 27-year-old pregnant woman, Andrea Dykes, and the best man at her 1997 wedding, John Light, 35. Her husband Julian Dykes, was badly injured.

Relatives, quoted by Sunday newspapers, said the group from Colchester, 55 miles northeast of London, had gone to the capital to see the musical Mamma Mia and dropped by the Admiral Duncan.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, addressing Sikh religious leaders in the central England city of Birmingham, said the Sikh message of tolerance "could not be more relevant."

"The only good that can come out of these nail bombs is that they spur all of us, whatever race, age, creed or sexuality, to work harder to build the one nation Britain that the decent majority want, and to bring our community closer together," said Blair.

Queen Elizabeth II sent her "heartfelt sympathy" Saturday to the families of the dead and wounded.