NP - Widescreen TV

[David Morris]

http://wire.ap.org/APnews/?SITE=FLPAP&FRONTID=HOME

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — A gunman apparently upset with the quality of 
wide-screen television grabbed as many as 40 hostages Monday in the tallest 
building in the Dutch capital. The siege ended after about eight hours, with 
local television reporting he was shot by police or had shot himself.
[...]
The man entered the 35-story Rembrandt Tower, former headquarters for 
Philips Electronics, shortly after most of the businesses inside opened for 
the day and initially took as many as 40 people hostage.

Before the hostage-taking ended, police were negotiating with the man, 
reported by some to be armed with a machine gun and explosives. After three 
hours of talks, six women were seen leaving the office complex. Others in 
the building reportedly fled down a fire escape. Police and firefighters 
evacuated neighboring office buildings.

A security guard reached in the lobby by The Associated Press less than an 
hour before the end of the siege said the gunman was holding eight people. 
Dozens of people were trapped in their offices in the towering structure.

Earlier, the same guard told Belgian television, ``A man came in with 
weapons and a bomb.'' Speaking moments after the gunman seized the building, 
he said ``the man is very calm, but is holding a gun. He wants results.''

As the hostage-taking dragged on, the gunman apparently plastered protest 
signs in windows of the building as high as the 17th floor.

In a statement faxed from the office tower to NOS, the gunman said he was 
protesting the ``arrogant manipulation by the vendors of wide screen 
television,'' and complained that consumers were being misled about the 
quality of the product.






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