It will soon be getting really frosty

It will soon be getting really frosty." It said the summit had "brought the West and Russia up against a barrier which could become a dividing line worse than the Berlin Wall or the Iron Curtain". Even as Mr Clinton flew out from the bad-tempered two-day summit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Russian warplanes were pounding targets in the breakaway republic. PRESIDENT CLINTON and the West squared up to Russia over the escalating war in Chechnya yesterday by announcing that the new pan-European arms treaty signed in Istanbul would not be ratified until Moscow pulled back its forces from the breakaway republic. Rarely since the end of the Cold War has Russia appeared so isolated on the world stage, with one leader after another complaining about the indiscriminate way its forces are killing and wounding civilians. The Russian newspaper Izvestiya commented: "It is autumn in relations between Russia and the West .. Cold winds are about to blow. PRESIDENT CLINTON and the West squared up to Russia over the escalating war in Chechnya yesterday by announcing that the new pan-European arms treaty signed in Istanbul would not be ratified until Moscow pulled back its forces from the breakaway republic. This means that any questions to the government that are tabled by the Democratic Party will not be answered before Parliament resumes next year.. The Democratic Party has labelled the bugging of the offices of Douglas Gibson, its chief whip, and other MPs, its parliamentary headquarters, as well as its national office and its Western Cape headquarters as South Africa's own Watergate scandal.Among issues which the party wants explained is how some of the 24-hour surveillance equipment came to be mounted on certain buildings.Ironically, disclosure of the electronic surveillance in Cape Town, which was discovered earlier this week, coincides with the final sitting of parliament for the year. But in South Africa or elsewhere on the continent, there have been no attacks on German-linked premises or individuals nor, it is believed, has Berlin's Pretoria embassy received any threats.Separately, the South African opposition Democratic Party claimed its offices at parliament in Cape Town were under surveillance and that certain telephone lines had been bugged. It followed the bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

A spokesman for the police, to which the discovery was reported, refused to comment on the incident but said "terrorist or other motives" had not been excluded.The most recent attack in South Africa which could be termed "terrorist" was the bombing last year of the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Cape Town by anti-American Muslim extremists. The wiring linking the camera to the recorder was said to be very visible and crude. South African foreign affairs spokesman Marco Boni said the matter was being explored at senior diplomatic levels and the intelligence service minister, Joe Nhlanhla, said he had ordered an investigation. Police sources would not rule out a terrorist link to the surveillance while the German embassy said it could not comment on security issuesThe camera was reportedly discovered on Wednesday after a security guard spotted a man changing video cassettes in a recorder hidden in a dustbin under the tree. "If things go badly I am the only one who can take the blame so the job can be difficult psychologically, as well as physically. But if the president of the parliament or the secretary general says, `Thank you, that went very well', it is a beautiful feeling." At this point we are interrupted by a parliamentary official: "Michele," he says, "my reception at one o'clock, is everything all right?""Yes, no problem", she replies quickly, adding as the official disappears into the distance, "I think I'll just go up there and check...". THE DISCOVERY of a crudely-wired video camera, hidden in a tree outside the German embassy in Pretoria, yesterday prompted South African intelligence to deny it would spy on an important trading partner. By 7pm her head is spinning and she leaves for the weekend.During Strasbourg weeks, Ms Singer is so rarely at home that she communicates with her husband and two teenage sons by leaving pre-dawn notes on the kitchen table She enjoys the job none the less.

"You are so proud to have done another week and so excited if you can say that everything went well," she says. Next month President Jacques Chirac will pay a visit and discussions are already under way about what he will eat.One item on the menu will be choucroute, an Alsace version of sauerkraut and a Strasbourg speciality.ON FRIDAY, the exodus from Strasbourg begins and the first bar shuts at 2pm.At around 5pm, when everything else has closed, Ms Singer has a celebratory glass of wine with staff before the paperwork comes in. Not until the meal starts will Ms Singer discover the guest list but she has to be prepared to serve Europe's most senior political figures. Each Strasbourg week the European Commission president and his 19 commissioners are in town Then there are the invited guests.