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Czech football star Pavel Nedvěd confirmed on Wednesday that his playing career is definitely over. The midfielder — who will be 37 at the end of this month — announced on his official website that he had turned down all the offers made to him in recent weeks to continue playing. He said he will devote himself to his family. The European player of the year in 2003 ended his career with top Italian club Juventus as the end of last season. He later, however, held out the possibility that he could continue playing outside Europe.

Amnesty International has called upon the Canadian government to lift visa restrictions for Czechs which it reintroduced in July, pointing to human rights violations in the Czech Republic. In a joint letter the Czech and Mexican branches of Amnesty International called on Ottawa to scrap tourist visas for their countries’ citizens, saying that human rights workers were ‘concerned’ by the approach the Canadian authorities had adopted. Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, the head of Czech Amnesty International, Dasa van der Horst, said that all countries had the right to monitor the entry of foreigners into their territory and that visas were a legitimate tool for this. She added that visas should not, however, be used to limit the possibility of refugees seeking protection abroad. Mrs van der Horst highlighted cases of human rights violations in the Czech Republic, referring to the increased activity of far-right extremists targeted mainly at the Czech Republic’s Roma minority. She said that in light of such problems, it was ‘important’ for Canada to continue to offer Czech Roma in particular refugee status.

Finance Minister Eduard Janota has said that his proposals to lower next year’s budget deficit will be finished by Thursday, and that, upon their completion, Prime Minister Jan Fischer will meet the heads of this country’s two main political parties to talk them through. In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Mr Janota added that the meeting would show whether the heads of the two biggest Czech parties – the Social Democrats and the Civic Democrats – really were committed to lowering the budget deficit. Mr Janota has drafted a budget for 2010 with a record deficit of 230 billion crowns (nearly 13 billion USD), which amounts to nearly seven percent of GDP. The finance minister has also been working on proposals to amend the law which would bring the deficit down by 70 billion crowns (nearly 4 billion USD). Mr Janota has warned of dire consequences for the country if next year’s budget deficit is not reduced.

Environment Minister Ladislav Miko has said that the number of bark beetles in the Šumava National Park is ‘under control’ and that declaring a state of emergency in the region would be ‘nonsensical’. Regional governor Jiří Zimola had said that there was an infestation of bark beetles in the national park, which, in his view, was caused by the decision to leave parts of the forest to its own natural development. But on Tuesday, the environment minister said that Mr Zimola’s rhetoric was simply to shock voters ahead of an election and that the regional governor did not present a real way of reducing beetle numbers. Mr Miko added that the bark beetle was a problem all over Europe and that the situation here was typical.