Notations From the Grid (Special Edition): On Three Distrubing Developments From #Maldives , #China & #Iraq

As we have been on the "Virtual Beat" On Implementation Day, our team has also been on the prowl on two disturbing cases out of Asia.   A number of Hong Kong Book sellers have disappeared and one of them has just appeared on Chinese State Television with a "confession":

Missing Hong Kong bookseller reappears to make "confession" on Chinese state TV https://t.co/PVGg4zMmzZ

— The Guardian (@guardian) January 17, 2016

This is especially disturbing as the principle of one Country-two laws is being increasingly undermined.  It was interesting how the Hong Kong CEO said he had raised the matter and found it unacceptable.   It will be interesting to see how the Hong Kong Street reacts.

We have also been following the disturbing news out of the Maldives.   The ousted President has been in prison and has been granted leave to go to the UK for Medical Treatment.  However, we just saw this again as reported by the Guardian:

Maldives demands 'hostage' before ex-president can have surgery in UK https://t.co/VpTetaH0mN

— The Guardian (@guardian) January 17, 2016

We will continue to be monitoring both cases over the ensuing days.    As we went to press, we also received reports at our Virtual Studios of three Americans being kidnapped in Baghdad as well in addition to earlier we reported over our Twitter Channel of reports out of Kabul of another loud explosion.