Ahmed Berry

A deal has been reached to end a week-long strike over pay by some 150,000 municipal workers in South Africa, union officials say.

They say they have agreed a pay rise of 13% - slightly less than they had been asking for but nearly double the 7% rate of annual inflation.

The strike meant rubbish was not collected, bus services did not run and local police forces were not working.

It was seen as a major challenge to President Jacob Zuma.

"It's over... we signed an agreement this [Friday] afternoon," South African Municipal Workers' Union general secretary Mathandeki Nhlapo told the South African Press Association.

"Our workers will return to their posts on Monday," he said.

Recent industrial disputes have coincided with violent protests by township residents demanding that the government provide basic services such as housing, electricity and water.

Mr Zuma took power in May after an election campaign in which he pledged to ease poverty.

He was supported by the main union federation, Cosatu, and the South African Communist Party, which wanted a change in the previous administration's economic policies, which it said were too pro-business.

However, South Africa has since entered its first recession in 17 years, making it more difficult for Mr Zuma to increase state spending.

A Colombian judge has sentenced 15 soldiers to up to 30 years in prison for killing civilians and presenting them as rebels.

The case involved two restaurant workers killed in 2006.

The soldiers were among those accused of "false positives", in which killings were faked to claim success against rebels or drug cartels.

The Colombian attorney general's office is investigating more than a thousand such murders.

Among those sentenced on Saturday were an officer, three subordinates and six ordinary soldiers who were found to have taken part in the killing of the two restaurant workers and were sentenced to 30 years.

Five others were sentenced to four years in jail for covering up details about the case.

The men disappeared on their way home from work in May 2006. Their bodies were later presented as rebels killed in combat.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott reports from Medellin that the army abuses have hurt the human rights reputation of the security forces and the government of President Alvaro Uribe.

Investigators say there could be anything up to 1,500 civilian victims, with more cases being reported all the time.

Most victims are poor or homeless people, often lured to their deaths by promises of employment.

The government insists that the practice has been stopped, our correspondent says.

Rural areas of Wales are cluttered by road signs and speed cameras, campaigners have claimed.

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW) said signs should not be banned, but instead placed with sensitivity and tact.

The Powys-based group says it wants to "choke ugliness in the countryside".

The Welsh Assembly Government said signs were put up only where there was a "clear need" to give drivers safety and information.

The CPRW has called for a return to a bygone era when "primroses lined the earth banks in late spring, bluebells in early summer and a galaxy of smells which lifted your spirits".

Its director, Peter Ogden, said: "Oh, how things have changed. Gone are the lengthsmen with their sickle and grindstones, the yellow and black patrol boxes and the manned level crossing.

"The diversity which once characterised all of Wales is fast disappearing and is being replaced by a blandness and the increasing uniformity of a catalogue countryside"

"And what do we have increasingly today, local rat runs, urban paraphernalia and convenience highway maintenance.

"The diversity which once characterised all of Wales is fast disappearing and is being replaced by a blandness and the increasing uniformity of a catalogue countryside.

"For some unknown reason, as cars are made to go faster and speed kills more people, we still widen, straighten and build bigger roads to textbook standards.

"When they are improved, what do we do to their widened mown verges and flailed hedges - plaster them with signs, speed cameras and their surfaces with speed reduction measures.

"Poorly designed and over engineered, our new breed of roads are eroding the character of the landscape of Wales."

Mr Ogden said the CPRW felt a need to "safeguard the beauty of the landscapes" and had launched its Clutter in the Countryside Challenge to "choke ugliness in the countryside".

He added: "The battle against clutter is not however a battle for prohibition, but for sensitivity and tact."

A Welsh Assembly Government spokesperson said that on its trunk road network "signs are only erected where there is a clear need to ensure the safety of drivers and communities or to provide information to drivers".

It said said would be "pleased to work with the national park authorities in Wales on this issue".

"We are committed to reducing accidents on Wales' trunk road network not only through signage but also through engineering, enforcement, education and media campaigns."