One of the big themes these days is the lack of action and… today continues that trend.

Around the world virtually nothing is going on.

Japan basically didn’t move (gaining 0.13%), US futures are flat, and European markets are very close to the zero.

This should be another quiet day in financial markets. More action will come tomorrow, when Bernanke speaks and the FOMC minutes are released. And then later in the week we get Flash PMI readings.

But for now, traders and analysts will be forced to continue pulling their hair out, looking for something interesting.

Twenty children were among at least 91 people killed when a powerful tornado swept through an Oklahoma City suburb, tearing down blocks of homes and two schools, local officials said.

The state medical examiner’s office released the latest death toll but the number was climbing rapidly, as emergency crews combed through smashed homes and the collapsed remains of an elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma.

Stunned weather forecasters reported a two-mile (three-kilometer) wide swath of vicious winds and television news helicopters tracked a dark funnel plowing through densely-packed suburbs.

“We’ve had a massive tornado, a huge one that has passed through this community,” Oklahoma’s Governor Mary Fallin told a news conference.

“We know there are a lot of injuries. We know we’ve lost a tremendous amount of structures throughout this community and throughout the state,” she said, as the Moore police chief urged people to leave the area.

“There are a lot of safety issues, gas lines, power lines, things of that nature, that we have to take into consideration and there’s just not much else that can be done there at this time,” police chief Jerry Sillings said.

The 91 dead included at least 20 children, most of them under the age of 12, Amy Elliott, of the state medical examiner’s office, told AFP. CNN reported that at least 145 people had been hospitalized.

Reporters for local broadcaster KFOR-TV saw children as young as nine being pulled out of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, a residential community of 55,000 just south of Oklahoma’s state capital.

Anxious parents were being kept at a distance while search-and-rescue workers scrambled to free the students.

A second elementary school, Briarwood, was also hit but did not appear to have sustained casualties.

From its news helicopter, KFOR’s cameras captured scenes of widespread destruction, with street after street of single-story homes in Moore stripped of their roofs and cars piled atop each other like toys.

Utility lines were down and gas lines exposed, triggering localized fires. The Moore Medical Center was evacuated after it sustained damage, and state authorities called out the National Guard to help rescue efforts.

US President Barack Obama meanwhile declared a “major disaster” in Oklahoma and ordered federal aid to supplement local recovery efforts.

On Twitter, the National Weather Service gave the tornado a preliminary rating of EF-4, indicating that it packed winds of 166 to 200 miles per hour (267-322 km/h) — more severe than a category five hurricane.

In downtown Oklahoma City, tornado sirens went off at least three times and the Interstate 35 highway — a busy north-south artery through the American heartland — was closed to all but emergency vehicles.

In Moore, live images from KFOR showed people wandering among the debris and even a couple of untethered horses from a local stable that somehow managed to survive the punishing storm.

“I had no idea it was coming,” said a stable worker, who told how he survived the “unbearably loud” twister by taking cover in one of the stalls.

Monday’s tornado followed roughly the same track as a May 1999 twister that killed 44 people, injured hundreds more and destroyed thousands of homes.

Tornadoes frequently touch down on Oklahoma’s wide open plains, but Monday’s twister struck a populated urban area and raised fears of a high casualty toll.

Because of the hard ground, few homes are built with basements or storm shelters in which residents can take cover.

Oklahoma City lies inside the so-called “Tornado Alley” stretching from South Dakota to central Texas, an area particularly vulnerable to tornadoes.

On Sunday, a powerful storm system churning through the US Midwest spawned tornadoes in Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma, destroying homes and killing at least two people, US media reported.

Fallin had already declared a state of emergency for 16 Oklahoma counties due to the tornado threat on Sunday, and added five more on Monday after the storms hit her capital.

In Washington, a White House official said Obama was getting regular updates and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stood ready to provide assistance.

“The administration continues to urge all those in affected or potentially affected areas to follow the direction of state and local officials as this severe weather continues,” the official added.

Both metals dropped hard the instant markets opened in Asia on Sunday evening (silver was especially hard hit).

Then the metals strengthened a a bit after the initial drop, rallied a bit mid day, and then went parabolic.

And then last night they rallied some more, jutted up sharply, before ultimately cooling down a bit.

Just wild action that stands sharply apart from the rest of the market.

As many as 26 tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa today, with Oklahoma City hardest hit.

This was the second time this month a tornado hit Oklahoma City and the National Weather Service warns that millions are still at immediate risk for severe weather, from Texas to the Great Lakes. It is tracking storms moving eastward as far as the Gulf Coast and Northeast on Tuesday and Wednesday.

One way to protect yourself is to download an app that can warn you when a tornado is spotted in your area. Here’s a list of apps that can help:

Tornado from the American Red Cross

This free app is available in English or Spanish for the iPhone and Android. It sounds a siren when an official tornado warning has been issued and sends an all-clear signal when the warning is over. Some content is preloaded so users have information even if the phone lines go down, such as where Red Cross shelters are located. It also includes a preloaded, one-touch “I’m safe” message.

The Weather Channel app from the Weather Channel

A free, daily weather app for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone that sends alerts for severe storms. It lets users upload photos and through augmented reality, users can hold the phone up and see photos that others shared.

TornadoSpy+ from By Justin Time

The $2.99 TornadoSpy+ iPhone and iPad app sends alerts and shows weather on radar maps. It also lets users upload crowdsourced info about tornadoes and other dangerous weather in their areas. Its makers say that on May 10, a user spotted the Oklahoma City tornado 20 minutes before the NOAA report, which meant other users had more time to protect themselves.

StormEye by Cody D. Smith

The free StormEye for iPhone and Android app takes information from the National Weather Service and provides details about storms near you. It tells you the storm’s location relative to your location, where the storm is heading, the storm’s intensity, hail probabilities, and maximum hail size.

Weather Radio by NOAA

If the power goes out but your 3G/4G service is still available, Weather Radio could become your lifeline. It streams more than 200 NOAA broadcasts plus includes alerts, emergency warnings for your state and detailed weather reports. It’s available for iPhone and Android and priced at $3.99.

Nixle from Nixle

Nixle sends an official text from public safety agencies when there’s an emergency going on in your neighborhood. Instead of downloading an app, you register your mobile phone number on the Nixle website. More than 5,000 public safety agencies use it and it’s free to register your phone.

eWeather HD from Elecont Software

eWeather is an extremely detailed weather app that includes alerts for tornado’s, hail, rain and snow. It shows storms on a Google Maps near your location in real time and in high resolution. It’s available for iPhone and Android and priced at $3.99.

[Click here for pictures of the Oklahoma City Tornado]

In spite of struggling stock prices and loud public uncertainty over Tim Cook‘s innovative capabilities, Apple is once again the most valuable brand in the world, for the year 2013.

Every year, BrandZ and Millward Brown Optimor calculate and rank brands based on their global value. And even though Apple’s growth rate decreased by 95%, the tech giant’s brand value still increased by 1% from 2012 to a a whopping $185 billion.

Millward Brown VP Oscar Yuan told Business Insider that this is because the company ranks brands based not only on publicly available financial information, but “the second half, which is the unique part, is that we take in the consumer sentiment.” Millward Brown polls more than 200 million consumers from 43 countries annually. In spite of everything, “Apple, in the eyes of consumers, is the gold standard.”

The brands that really won this year were those tied to emerging mobile capabilities — be it AT&T for servicing tablets and smartphones, Visa for dominating online payment methods, Amazon for simplifying mobile shopping, or UPS for physically delivering said online purchases.

20. MasterCard

Brand Value: $27.8 billion

Percent Change v. 2012: 34%

What Happened: MasterCard’s rank flew up nine spots this year to the 20th most valuable brand in the world, and Millward Brown VP Oscar Yuan attributes that ascent to “the growth of mobile technology.” As consumers up their online shopping habits, brands like Mastercard and Visa reap the rewards for offering noncash payment methods.

19. SAP

Brand Value: $34.36 billion

Percent Change v. 2012: 34%

What Happened: “They’re really into the big data,” Yuan explained of the German tech brand, “So [the increase in value] is reflective of a consistent storyline: The growth of mobile shopping.” SAP has the big data solutions enterprise companies need.

18. Walmart

Brand Value: $36.2 billion

Percent Change v. 2012: 5%

What Happened: Walmart, however, has mastered the art of brick and mortar shopping. “You can’t buy milk online,” Yuan said. The retail giant has a large and loyal consumer base that is constantly growing — even internationally.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Abdelaziz Bouteflika

ALGIERS:  An editor has accused Algeria’s government of censorship after it blocked the publication of his two newspapers.

Hicham Aboud, the editor of the My Journal and Djaridati newspapers, said that the publications were censored after he rejected an order from the communication ministry on Saturday night. They had told him to remove an article claiming Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the president, had slipped into a coma.

The 76-year-old leader suffered a stroke last month and is being treated in France.

Aboud said: “This is more than an act of censorship, it’s a ban on publishing.” He said the articles were quoting credible medical sources.

The communications ministry said its action prevented a breach of national security.

Three weeks after being rushed to hospital in Paris, Mr Bouteflika has disappeared from sight, leaving behind a country preparing for a successor who, for the first time, will come from a generation too young to have fought in Algeria’s war of independence against France. In a country run with Soviet-style secrecy, nobody is sure how sick Mr Bouteflika is.

But despite an official bulletin last week saying he was recovering from a minor stroke, most believe he must be seriously ill to have disappeared from public view for so long.

France’s Le Point magazine also cited medical sources as saying some of his vital organs had been badly affected.

French and Algerian officials declined comment but local media have hinted that the country is preparing for a new era.

The loss of Mr Bouteflika would deprive Algeria of the last of the old guard who steered the country from independence in 1962 through civil war against Islamist insurgents in the 1990s to a period of stability funded by vast oil and gas resources.

It would also lead to a bumpy transfer of power before presidential elections due in April 2014 at a time when Algeria’s neighbours – among them Mali, Tunisia and Libya – are facing a revival of Islamist militancy in the region.

Algeria’s ageing leaders have always conducted their affairs in secrecy, a legacy of their fear of betrayal during the 1954 to 1962 war of independence.

* Associated Press and Reuters

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/africa/algeria-censors-newspapers-for-president-in-a-coma-reports#ixzz2Tu36FJrM

When a devastating tornado touched down in Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, locals had 16 minutes to get to safety before the mile-wide EF4 hit.

Even that seemingly short warning system is enough to save a ton of lives.

The Oklahoma City siren system, a network of 181 emergency warning sirens, was state-of-the-art when it went online in April, 2002. It cost $4.5 million to install the new system, which replaced the cold war-era sirens that covered only the most densely populated parts of the city.

The sirens sound once the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning, and they serve as a signal to turn on a television or radio to get more detailed information about the storm and instructions on how to seek shelter.

The sirens are spread across three counties around Oklahoma City, including the county Moore is located in, according to the city’s website. Moore itself has 36 sirens in its Outdoor Warning System, [PDF] many of them near schools:

When the sirens sound, people are advised to seek shelter in a basement or safe room on the lowest level of the building they are in. Avoiding areas near windows and doors are recommended, and people are advised not to travel to shelters during a tornado.

According to ABC News, the elementary schools in Moore don’t have underground shelters. Instead, the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders from Plaza Towers Elementary school, which was destroyed by the storm, were evacuated to a local church and reports indicate they are safe.

The third grade class is still unaccounted for.

The National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma has a list of sheets for school administrators on how to prepare for a tornado. Students are moved to interior rooms or hallways on the lowest floor, they are kept away from large areas, like gyms, cafeterias, and auditoriums because large room like those have inherently weak roofs.They are told to shelter their heads with blankets, pillows, and mattresses.

Because the Moore schools didn’t have underground bunkers, and a direct hit from an EF4 tornado would easily level a building, the school should have an evacuation plan in place.

Oklahoma schools took a close look after Moore elementary schools were destroyed in a tornado in 1999, which luckily struck after kids were home.

A 2000 report by Andrea Dawn Melvin [PPT], of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, detailed how their safety plans at the time would have resulted in injury.

Students at Eastlake Elementary, in Moore, Oklahoma had been instructed to take refuge in “centrally located offices,” which the report states, “none of the identified areas appeared sufficiently constructed to withstand a direct hit by a violent tornado.”

In Northmoor Elementary, students shelter in a hallway topped with windows, which have “limited capacity to resist lateral forces” — the exact forces that make tornadoes so dangerous — “obviously, had these corridors been used for shelter during the tornado, numerous injuries or deaths would have occurred.”

We don’t have data on the specifics of the tornado plans for Plaza Towers or Briarwood Elementary school yet, so we can’t be sure how they’ve changed their tornado safety plans.

All students at Briarwood seem to have been accounted for, but 24 students are presumed dead at Plaza Towers, as police switch from a rescue to a recovery mission. Oklahoma city’s chief medical officer says there are at least ten fatalities from the storm.

Michael Hartnett, Bank of America Merrill Lynch‘s Chief Investment Strategist, recently published a report loaded with unconventional charts intended to communicate how the world is changing.

In a slide titled “The new Berlin Wall,” Hartnett presented this chart showing how German bond and stock prices have surged as the young people in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain have suffered.

Many consider this a reflection of how the euro has failed those in its currency bloc.

Unfortunately, Hartnett sees a very similar trend within in the U.S. where stock and bond prices have rebounded sharply benefiting the investing class even as increasing numbers of Americans watch from the sidelines.

“Risk is bubbles and Robin Hood policies that curtail the demand and supply of credit,” wrote Hartnett.

SEE ALSO: Sobering Presentation Reveals The Two Economies In America >

Google Glass is still in its infancy and has a few kinks to work out, but the potential for Glass in society is astronomical. 

Some “Glass Explorers” — developers, basically —over at digital creative agency Playground Inc came up with some conceptual use-cases for Glass should the platform fully mature.

Some of what Playground envisions jibes with some of the apps Google employees would like to see run on Glass. But in other cases, Playground takes Glass to a whole other level.

While biking, Glass could provide you real-time information about your workout.

If you get a new email while riding, you could either ignore it or quickly tap to read it.

Here, you could reply via voice or respond later.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Some things have to come down.

“This was the scene in Wuhan as three-and-a-half kilometers of elevated road came down,” wrote Bloomberg about this incredible demolition footage.  “The viaduct was only built in 1997 as part of the main highway between Shanghai and Tibet.

Check out this video from Bloomberg.com:

SEE ALSO: 29 Crazy Things That Only Happen In China >