Freighter starts dive manoeuvres

Europe's biggest, most sophisticated spaceship is about to bring its six-month mission to an end by plunging into the Pacific in a ball of flames.

The "Jules Verne" freighter undocked from the space station three weeks ago packed with rubbish and will take its unwanted cargo into a destructive dive.

Most of the vehicle is expected to burn up in the atmosphere; only fragments will make it down to the ocean water.

The first of two engine firings to bring the ship down has been completed.

The de-orbit boost lasting six minutes began at 1000 GMT. The second firing will slow the vehicle sufficiently to take it out of the sky. It was timed to begin just before 1300 GMT.

Events are being overseen from the European Space Agency's (Esa) freighter control centre in Toulouse, France.

Mike Steinkopf, the mission director for re-entry, says a "safety zone" has been drawn in the south Pacific some 2,700km long by 200km wide.

"We issue a notification to the air traffic and maritime authorities to make sure there are no planes or boats going through that zone during our re-entry time," he told BBC News.

Astronauts on the overflying International Space Station (ISS) and scientists in two chase planes will take pictures as the disintegrating mass of metal streaks through the morning Pacific darkness.

"Visually, we will see what appears to be a very bright meteor," explained Jason Hatton from the chase team set by Esa and the US space agency (Nasa). "It will start as a point of light with a trail, and then as it comes apart, we will see fragments."

Retailer Best Buy to buy Napster

Consumer electronics giant Best Buy has entered the online music arena, purchasing the Napster online music service for $121m (£67.5m) in cash and investments.

The acquisition values Napster at $2.65 a share, more than twice its market value on Friday.

Best Buy said the move was to "reach new customers" and leverage Napster's 700,000 existing subscribers.

The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Best Buy said Napster's easy-to-use interface, streaming music and mobile offerings were the service's key strengths.

"We can foresee Napster acting as a platform for accelerating our growth in the emerging industry of digital entertainment, beyond music subscriptions," said Dave Morrish, an executive vice president of Best Buy in a statement.

Napster reinvented itself as a music subscriber business after reaching fame and drawing fire from the music industry as a peer-to-peer file-sharing network. The company now claims to have 700,000 members.

Prior to the deal Napster had itself been acquiring smaller online music outlets, such as those run by Virgin Digital and AOL. However, the company's stock has fallen 57% in the past year, and it reported a $16.5m loss for its 2008 financial year.