"Reserve release has been boosting EPS and while it likely fades, the tank doesn't look empty yet," analysts led by John McDonald said in a note to clients.

Reserve release as a percentage of earnings is likely to fall from around 22 percent of EPS at the large- and mid-cap banks in 2012 to about 10 percent in 2013 and about 1 percent in 2014, they said.

However, with low interest rates, high liquidity, tightened underwriting and lackluster new lending, credit costs should be able to stay lower for longer, which would help fuel continued reserve releases, the analysts added.

Bernstein analysts also expect net charge off rates to fall below historical average over the intermediate term, as banks benefit from an improving economy, cleaner books, and improved underwriting standards.

Bank of America is likely to benefit the most from the combined impact of lower charge offs and reserve releases, which are expected to constitute about 56 percent of the lender's adjusted annualized first-quarter 2013 earnings. They would be about 55 percent for Synovus Financial Corpand about 52 percent for Citigroup, the brokerage added.

(Reporting By Neha Dimri in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For years, Apple Inc kept a low profile in Washington as it grew into one of the most valuable companies in the world. Now the iPad maker has taken the lead, perhaps inadvertently, on a top priority for U.S. business: simplifying America's tax code.

Chief Executive Tim Cook, who was called before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Tuesday to answer questions about Apple's alleged tax avoidance, used his appearance to plead for an overhaul of corporate taxes. That marked a sharp turnabout for a company that until now has been content to let rivals like Google and Microsoft fight Washington policy battles.

And even though the scrutiny Apple has come under in Washington could further challenge the company as it copes with a sagging stock price, rising competition and questions about its labor practices, it may have little choice but to commit fully to the fight over the corporate tax code.

"They are very, very tactical," said a former Apple lobbyist who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. "They only join issues they really care about."

Recently, Apple has backed unsuccessful legislation that would have allowed international companies to bring overseas profits back home without paying the 35 percent corporate income tax.

Repatriation of profits has been a top concern for U.S. companies, which collectively have more than $1.5 trillion sitting offshore. Most say they keep the money there to avoid the taxes they would face by bringing it home.

Bowing to increasing shareholder pressure to distribute some of the $100 billion it keeps overseas, Apple has opted to borrow money at low interest rates rather than bring the cash home and take the tax hit.

Apple's Washington office referred questions to its California headquarters. Officials there declined to comment.

Apple has spent far less than other corporate titans on Washington lobbying over the past decade, records show, and the company has often declined to work with other technology companies on issues affecting the industry as a whole. It dropped out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2009 after it disagreed with the business lobby's stance on climate change.

The company spent about $2 million on lobbying last year, up from $180,000 in 1999, records show. This year it is on pace to nearly double last year's figure.

Apple's lobbying expenditures still pale in comparison with those of Microsoft Corp., which spent $8.1 million in 2012, and Google, which spent $16.5 million, records show.

And unlike other businesses such as AT&T and Exxon Mobil, Apple has not set up a political action fund to distribute employee contributions to congressional allies - a common tool for wielding influence in Washington.

"Clearly, Apple does not have a huge footprint for the tech sector. I don't mean to denigrate almost $2 million (spent on)lobbying - that's a lot of money - but it's not as much as other tech companies have been spending," said Bill Allison, editorial director for the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit that deals with money in politics.

Lobbyists not associated with the firm privately said Apple's minimal Washington presence could have put it in the crosshairs of the Senate subcommittee, which on Monday accused the company of ducking $9 billion in U.S. taxes through offshore subsidiaries. The lobbyists pointed to the example of Microsoft, which had little presence in Washington before antitrust investigators at the Department of Justice nearly succeeded in splitting the company up in the 1990s.

Though Apple, like many other Silicon Valley companies, served as an important source of campaign money for Democratic candidates in the 2012 election, it has enlisted experienced Republicans to make its case in Washington.

Apple's chief lobbyist, Catherine Novelli, served as a top trade official in Republican President George W. Bush's administration. Other in-house lobbyists have worked as aides to senior Republican lawmakers, including Texas Representative Joe Barton, who used to oversee tech issues as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, records show.

The company also has hired outside firms to extend its reach in Congress and throughout government. Lobbyists at Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock and Capitol Tax Partners have worked for the Bush administration and top Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The Glover Park Group and the Franklin Square Group have provided lobbyists from the Democratic side of the aisle who lobby on tax, broadband, electronic waste and spectrum issues.

The company has also enlisted Jon Bernstein, a former Democratic staffer at the Federal Communications Commission, to lobby that agency and the White House on subsidies for broadband access and technology-related legislation.

None of the lobbyists immediately responded to requests for comment.

The company does have one ace in its pocket: its sleek gadgets. Even lawmakers who grilled Cook on Apple's tax practices said they were avid iPhone and iPad users.

"I love Apple!" Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill declared.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan and Gabriel Debenedetti in Washington and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Tim Dobbyn)

That's why the agency dismantled thethat private contractors had set up in a large EPA storage warehouse in suburban Landover, Md., northeast of Washington, D.C.

The contractor, Apex Logistics, was hired by the EPA in 2007 to manage the agency's 70,000-square-foot (6,503 square meters) warehouse.

But Apex is now barred from the site, because their employees had set up couches, big-screen TVs, refrigerators, gym equipment and other furnishings inside the storage facility, according to the government's business news daily .

The contractors cleverly arranged partitions and stacked boxes to hide their secret man caves from security cameras, then decorated the walls with pinup calendars and photos.

Despite the cozy dcor, "deplorable conditions existed at the warehouse; corrosion, vermin feces, mold and other problems were pervasive," according to the EPA report.

Scattered among the videos, magazines and radios were important documents containing sensitive personal information such as passports.

Since awarding Apex Logistics the warehouse maintenance contract six years ago, the EPA has paid the company about $5.3 million, primarily for labor costs, Government Executive reports.

It's a guy thing

Apparently, the primal urge to set up a man cave is irrepressible among some guys: In 2007, police arrested Michael Townsend, the leader of an artist's cooperative in Rhode Island, for surreptitiously constructing a man cave at Providence Place Mall.

Townsend was inspired to build the 750-square-foot (70 square m) space after hearing a radio ad featuring a woman exclaiming how great it would be to live at the mall,reports.

The man-cave phenomenon began in earnest in the 1990s after the publication of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" (HarperCollins, 1992), in which author John Gray describes the need some men feel for a private retreat, thereports.

"Women come up to me and say: 'Thank you for explaining his cave. I always used to take it personally, and now I understand he just needs time in the cave and then he comes out,'" Gray told the Times.

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According to Canalys, Apples share of the global smartphone market will drop from 19.5% in 2012 to 14.1% in 2017, representing somewhere over 200 million smartphones. Meanwhile,smartphone market share will balloon to 12.7% in 2017, up from just 2.4% in 2012.

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BlackBerry is predicted to see its share slide to 4.6% in 2017 from 4.8% last year, but that figure would be music to BlackBerrys ears a 4.6% share of the smartphone market in 2017 would representnearly 70 million smartphones according to Canalys estimates.

The firms full press release follows below.

Over 1 billion Android-based smart phones to ship in 2017

- 1.5 billion total smart phones to ship, accounting for 73% of all mobile phone shipments

Shanghai, Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading Tuesday, 4 June 2013

Worldwide, 1.5 billion smart phones will ship in 2017, according to the latest country level forecasts from Canalys, to account for 73% of all mobile phone shipments. In North America and Western Europe, virtually all phones shipped will be smart phones. Even in Greater China, smart phones will represent 95% of all mobile phone shipments in 2017.

The price of smart phones has fallen dramatically over the last few years and this has helped increase penetration, said Chris Jones, Canalys Principal Analyst. But, so far, the problem with low-cost smart phones has been that the user experience has been compromised to hit lower price points. This is why Nokia has been so successful with its Asha portfolio. These handsets have been purpose-built and provide a great pseudo-smart phone experience. But the situation will change over the next few years. As component prices continue to fall, vendors will be able to deliver great experiences on smart phones at low price points, which means that in many markets, feature phones will become extinct.

The smart phone market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18%, while mobile phone shipments will decline by a CAGR of 9% over the same period. Growth in the smart phone market will continue to be driven by Android. In 2012, over 470 million Android-based smart phones shipped and by 2017 this number will have more than doubled to over 1 billion, giving the platform a 67.1% market share. Over the same period, it is forecast that Apples shipments will continue to grow, but at a slower rate than the total smart phone market and hence its market share will fall from 19.5% in 2012 to 14.1% in 2017. Apples growth will be curtailed by the fact that momentum in the smart phone market is coming from the low end, and Apple is absent from this segment, said Jessica Kwee, Canalys Analyst. Androids continued dominance is due to the scalability of the platform.

In contrast to Apple, Microsofts market share is forecast to grow from 2.4% to 12.7% over the same period. The scalability of Microsofts platform will be critical to its success and it has made progress here by enabling Huawei and Nokia to deliver Windows Phone products at aggressive price points, said Kwee. Nokia is the most active vendor in the Microsoft camp and it continues to make steady progress with its Lumia portfolio. It has had some major carrier wins recently in the two largest markets of China and the US, which will help it build momentum in the short term. But longer-term it is the Chinese vendors that are best placed to challenge Samsungs market dominance. Microsoft already has a relationship with Huawei and ZTE in the phone space, and Lenovo is a major partner in the PC space. These partners will be needed to help deliver the scale that Microsoft needs.

The outlook for BlackBerry remains positive. Though its market share will remain stable over the forecast period, in real terms its shipments are expected to more than double. But for this to happen, it needs to phase out BlackBerry 7 devices quickly and add BlackBerry 10 devices across a range of price points. In addition, BlackBerry needs to urgently reverse its fortunes in the US and focus on growing its presence in China, as without these markets it will struggle to hit the projected shipment numbers.

This article was

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Bollywood actress Jiah Khan was found dead at her home in Mumbai, police said on Tuesday.

Khan, 25, was found hanged in her room on Monday night by her mother with a post mortem to be carried out to establish the cause of death, a Mumbai police official said.

But a police source said the death was not being treated as suspicious as it appeared to be suicide although no suicide note was found.

He said police had questioned Suraj Pancholi, son of actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, to whom Khan had made her last phone call.

Khan, whose real name was Nafisa Khan, was born in New York and grew up in London. Her website said she went to New York to study acting at the Lee Strasberg's Institute.

Khan made her Bollywood debut in 2007 with Ram Gopal Varma's "Nishabd", playing the 18-year-old female lead opposite one of India's leading actors, Amitabh Bachchan, in a film loosely based on Vladimir Nabokov's classic novel "Lolita".

"Nishabd" received mixed reviews and did not do well at the Bollywood box office but Khan went on to play supporting roles in two blockbusters, the psychological thriller "Ghajini" in 2008 and the comedy "Housefull" in 2010.

Her death shocked the Indian film industry.

"Never ever seen a debutant actress with more spunk and more spirit than Jiah when i was directing her in Nishabd," filmmaker Varma wrote on Twitter.

"I don't know the reason what led to this but jiah was very depressed about her career and scared for her future," he said in another tweet, adding that the actress had not worked for the past three years.

Fellow actress Dia Mirza tweeted: "RIP Nafisa (Jiah) Khan. You were too young and beautiful."

(Editing by Tony Tharakan and Belinda Goldsmith)

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- A new program will offer an online education in financial literacy to Nebraska high school students and parents.

State Treasurer Don Stenberg on Thursday unveiled the new initiative, which will be available this fall. The program is being offered through an agreement with EverFi, Inc., an educational technology company based in Washington, D.C.

The coursework addresses a range of financial topics, including credit cards, credit scores, insurance, mortgages, savings, student loans and taxes.

Bonnie Sibert of the Nebraska Department of Education says the animated, interactive programs will add a new twist to existing financial literacy programs in schools.

The initiative is sponsored by the Nebraska State Educational Savings Trust, the state's college savings program.

Fitch said demonstrations so far had not been on a scale to cause significant economic disruption but could escalate and harm the economy if poorly handled by the authorities.

Fitch gave Turkey an investment grade rating of 'BBB-' in November, citing underlying economic strengths.

The country secured its second such rating last month when Moody's upgraded it to Baa3, a move that enabled more funds to invest in the economy.

"The level of unrest is well within the tolerance of political stability embedded in the current rating, and the economic impact so far is minor," Fitch said on Friday.

It said it was not surprising that the protests had emerged before a 2014-2015 election cycle.

"The demonstrations have not been on the scale that would bring about the kind of economic dislocation that has occurred in parts of the Arab world in recent years," it said.

It said the economy has performed well and while Turkey's current account deficit and short-term debt are large, financing has proved resilient.

"Nonetheless, much will depend on how the authorities respond to the protests. Poorly handled, the situation could escalate, with adverse consequences for the economy," it added.

It said persistent political and social unrest could deter tourism, destabilize short-term capital inflows, drive up inflation and damage economic growth.

(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall/Ruth Pitchford)

Scientists using the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) and other ground-based tools spied theas it passed in front of its star, a process called transiting.

The planet, called KELT-6b, can be seen from the surface of Earth for five hours as it transits a relatively short window in which to catch the planet making its presence known. The research team required patience and luck to make their find, the scientists said.

The planet is also very close to its star; its year lasts only about 7.8 days. Although KELT-6b has no rings, its mass and size resemble the planet , scientists say.

Karen Collins, a graduate student in astrophysics at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, led the study that confirmed the discovery originally glimpsed by KELT. She used the University of Louisville's Moore Observatory to observe the transit and collect necessary data to follow-up the initial find.

"To participate in planet discovery here in Kentucky, its just incredible to me to be able to do that," Collins said in a statement.

Collins presented information about the newly discovered alien planet here at the 222nd meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

The newly discovered planet is also something of a cousin to another planet famed among exoplanet hunting scientists. , a heavily studied alien planet, is also a gas giant that orbits very close to its star.

"KELT-6b is a 'metal-poor' cousin of HD 209458b," said Keivan Stassun, professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University and a member of the KELT team. "The role of metals in the stellar environments in which planets form is a major question in our understanding of these other worlds. This new planet is among the least endowed with such metals that we know of, and because it is so bright it should serve as a benchmark for comparative studies of how and under what conditions planets form."

Collins is now investigating a second body in the same system as KELT-6b.

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"Greece will never allow hate to grow and spread. Hate will be confronted and stopped," declared Foreign Minister Avramopoulos. "No one should ever believe that the country, which gave birth to democracy and respect for the human being, which has become the best example of resistance against Nazism, would ever tolerate and allow the revival of hatred and racism."

The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party holds 18 seats in the Greek Parliament, and public opinion surveys show it enjoys the support of more than ten percent of the population.

"Because of its economic problems, Greece is facing serious social challenges that have bred political forces that disgrace our democratic and humanistic traditions," said Avramopoulos. "The social factors that have allowed this to happen, as in other European countries, must be successfully addressed."

The foreign minister spoke enthusiastically of deepening ties between Greece and Israel, based on shared democratic values and common economic and strategic interests in the region. Avramopoulos was in Israel only two days before coming to Washington to address AJC. In Israel, he was preparing for a significant "high-level meeting between our two governments" that will take place within a few months.

"It will be a great moment for our two nations," he said. "It is the fruit of concrete, coherent, sustained and well-prepared action, expressing the strong will of the two countries to collaborate closely together for the benefits and prosperity of our peoples." Greece and Israel will sign 20 agreements for "a new framework of Greece-Israel relations."

Avramopoulos, who has long been a close friend of AJC, and the Greek Jewish community, saluted the "exemplary cooperation" that AJC has achieved with the Greek American and the Cypriot American communities, adding that those relationships "inspire" the government of Greece in its own deepening ties with Israel.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - WB's "Man of Steel" star Henry Cavill is now in talks to be the studio's "Man From U.N.C.L.E.," TheWrap has learned.

Cavill is making a deal to play Napoleon Solo in Guy Ritchie's feature adaptation of the classic 1960s TV series.

Cruise left the project last week in order to focus his attention on producing "Mission: Impossible 5" for Paramount and Skydance.

With "Man of Steel" buzz swirling in Burbank, WB execs are confident that Cavill has what it takes to launch a franchise that lacks the built-in audience of Superman fans. The British star of "The Tudors" previously powered Relativity's "Immortals" to a worldwide gross of $226 million.

Ritchie had been expecting to start production in the fall with Armie Hammer co-starring as Illya Kuryakin, Solo's fellow agent in the United Network Command for Law Enforcement. Robert Vaughan and David McCallum originated the roles on the 60s spy series.

Ritchie is producing with Lionel Wigram and John Davis.

It's early days, but CAA-repped Cavill doesn't have any projects crowding his fall schedule, as WB and Legendary East's supernatural movie "The Great Wall" has been postponed indefinitely.