BAA said yesterday it has appointed Stephen Peat as managing director for its new airports division. The company, which operates Scotland's three major air terminals, said Peat will have responsibility for running six of BAA's seven UK airports.

By TORCUIL CRICHTON AT least it wasn't raining when I came back to London. True, there were no Tube trains running, the buses were tuna canned with body odour as the brine, and the pavements a frenzied river of human salmon fighting to get upstream. Sunny, yes, but no furry dice.

Six firms are fighting it out for a political monitoring brief with London Underground maintenance contractor Tube Lines, in the week the RMT went on a three-day strike, triggered by the collapse of Metronet.

By Emily Dugan Passengers were braced for another day of travel chaos today after the RMT union showed no signs of letting up on its 72-hour London Underground strike and threatened to continue its industrial action for "as long as it takes".

By PIPPA CRERAR GORDON BROWN'S part-privatisation of the Tube is to face a fresh probe by Parliament's spending watchdog. Sir John Bourne, head of the National Audit Office, will investigate after the collapse of a 17 billion contract run by private firm Metronet.