Reuters correspondent Sumeet Desai talks about the G20 draft communique and what it means for rebalancing the world's economy.

-Maria Sheahan is a Reuters senior correspondent in Frankfurt.-

So far, Europe has left it up to the United States, Russia and China to send people into space. But almost 50 years after Russia's Yuri Gagarin made his first orbit around the earth, it's about time that Europe finally enter the playing field, some say.

"Europe cannot stay out of manned (space) flight forever," EADS unit Astrium Space Transportation's CEO Alain Charmeau said at the Paris Air Show. Europe has its own space agency, ESA; it has its own module on the International Space Station; and it has sent its astronauts into space as passengers on the spacecraft of others.

Launching its own manned spaceflight mission "is not a budgetary issue, it is a matter of political willingness," Charmeau said. His company, which makes space launchers that carry satellites or other items into space and could make a lunar lander, would be one of many that would benefit from the additional business.

Even outside the sphere of government-funded space programs, Charmeau said he expects to see more people going up into space, as paying tourists.

"I am really a supporter of space tourism," Charmeau said.

Astrium is building its own space plane for that market, but Charmeau cautioned that space tourism projects would have to wait until the financial crisis ends and investments are more readily available again. And Virgin Galactic has been eyeing space tourism as a major future market for a while as well.

So the call is clear: Europe, send your rocket men to space already!

The idea of a boycott of this Summer’s Beijing Olympics in protest at the handling of events in Tibet is not yet an official policy of any government or major human rights organization.

But actor Richard Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, has told Reuters he believes it would be “unconscionable” to attend the Games if China fails to deal with  peacefully with the latest unrest.

Do you think Britain — or Britons — should boycott the Games over Tibet?

Britain has long regarded Tibet as autonomous while recognising the special position of the Chinese there but has often been criticised by activists who accuse it of being supine over the issue, preferring not to rock the boat by, for example,  allowing the Dalai Lama to meet the prime minister on his visits to the UK and refraining from trenchant public criticism of Beijing over human rights in Tibet. The Dalai Lama next visits Britain in May.

With international attention increasingly focused on China ahead of the Games, has the time come to take a stand, or would such a move merely aggravate the lot of the Tibetans?