The "Homeland" actress says she considered a change of careers when she went through a stretch where she couldn't find a good role.

In an interview for Vogue's August issue, the 34-year-old says she didn't work for two years after starring in the 2010 biopic "Temple Grandin," which earned her an Emmy and Golden Globe. Danes said she couldn't just take any role after playing Grandin, an activist for autistics and animal rights.

Danes calls it a grim experience that left her so hurt that she flirted with a career change. Says Danes: "I really like interior design."

Of course, Danes didn't have leave acting. She landed the role of Carrie Mathison on "Homeland" and has won an Emmy and two Golden Globes.

The carbon tax on Australia's worst industrial polluters, including its coal-reliant power producers, went into effect in July 2012 and was supposed to remain in place until 2015. At that point, it was set to be replaced by an emissions trading scheme, in which the cost of emitting a ton of carbon would be determined by buyers and sellers in a carbon market.

Rudd is advancing that timeline by a year, with the emissions trading scheme now beginning on July 1, 2014. The move will reduce the cost of carbon from a predicted 25.40 Australian dollars ($22.40) per metric ton in July next year to an estimated AU$6 per metric ton, Rudd said.

"This is the fiscally responsible thing to do," Rudd told reporters in the northern city of Townsville. "The nation's 370 biggest polluters will continue to pay for their carbon pollution, but the cost will be reduced, meaning less pressure on consumers."

The move is expected to save Australian households an average of AU$380 a year, Rudd said. The savings would largely be in the form of lower energy bills.

The government will make up for a predicted $3.8 billion shortfall in the federal budget with spending cuts, including scaling back funding for some environmental programs.

The carbon tax was enacted under the previous prime minister, Julia Gillard, who was ousted by Rudd last month in an internal Labor Party coup. Rudd had been ousted as prime minister by Gillard in her own internal coup three years earlier.

Under Gillard, Labor looked set for an overwhelming defeat at this year's elections. But recent polls suggest the race has tightened since Rudd took back the reins. Gillard had set elections for Sept. 14, though Rudd can hold them between August and November. He has refused to publicly announce a date, though said "there's not going to be a huge variation" from Sept. 14.

Gillard pushed through the carbon tax in a bid to gain needed support from the minor Greens party, despite a campaign promise not to do so. The government defended the move as a necessary weapon against climate change. Australia is one of the world's worst greenhouse gas emitters per capita because of its heavy reliance on massive coal reserves to generate electricity.

But the backlash from the public was intense, with some dubbing Gillard "Ju-liar." Conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott has repeatedly hammered Labor over the tax, using it to paint the ruling party as untrustworthy.

On Tuesday, Abbott criticized Rudd for saying the government was terminating the tax.

"All he's done is simply brought forward Julia Gillard's carbon tax changes by 12 months. He's not the terminator he's the exaggerator. He's not the terminator, he's the fabricator," Abbott told reporters in the island state of Tasmania. "He's changed its name, but he hasn't abolished the tax. All he's done is given Australians one year only of very modest relief."

From statehouses to Congress, Republicans have advanced a range of ideas: banning nearly all abortions beyond the 20th week after conception; making abortion clinics follow regulations for surgical care; mandating that clinic physicians have admitting privileges at local hospitals; requiring women to get ultrasounds before terminating a pregnancy.

The issue, which is figuring prominently in early 2016 White House race maneuvering, energizes social conservatives who influence many Republican primaries and drive GOP success in nonpresidential years when the electorate is older, whiter and more conservative. And some Republicans say more moderate voters will support their agenda in the wake of the murder conviction against Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor who jurors determined killed babies who'd survived the procedure.

But Democrats and abortion-rights advocates say Republicans already have overreached the noticeable uptick in restrictions began with GOP gains in 2010 elections, before Gosnell's prosecution began and that moderate voters have other priorities.

"Defense workers are being furloughed, student loan interest rates have doubled and these Republicans insist on a relentless pursuit of more restrictions on women's freedoms," said Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democrats' national congressional campaign for 2014. "Swing voters are by their very nature moderate; they want solutions, not ideological warfare."

The House of Representatives adopted a 20-week ban in June. It has no chance of passing the Democratic-run Senate. A top anti-abortion lobbyist, National Right to Life Committee president Carol Tobias, told The Associated Press that her organization is working on a bill with the office of Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is a high-profile possibility for the 2016 presidential race.

North Carolina's newfound legislative supermajority wants to regulate clinics more heavily, though the Republican governor has pushed back after promising as a candidate not to sign any new restrictions. Texas Gov. Rick Perry called his GOP legislature back into session to consider a 20-week ban and sweeping regulatory changes after a Democratic filibuster derailed the measure and drew national attention last month. The legislature passed the bill Friday and it's headed to Perry's desk.

Rick Santorum, a failed 2012 presidential candidate who's considering another run, has traveled to Texas to lobby for the bill. Perry, meanwhile, is among several anti-abortion governors mulling a presidential bid. Scott Walker in Wisconsin recently signed a bill requiring ultrasounds before abortions, though a federal judge blocked the law. Louisiana's Bobby Jindal has signed several more restrictive bills, including two these year.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, which works on reproductive health issues including abortion-rights, states this year have enacted at least 43 new laws that restrict or further regulate abortion. That comes after more than 120 new laws, several held up by federal courts, the previous two years.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said, "There's a political price for Republicans trying to roll back the clock," and some of the legislative debates have already drawn comparisons to Republican losses in 2012, when controversial or scientifically inaccurate statements from Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock grew into a national liability.

Israel predicated abortion would be an issue again in the 2013-14 elections that will determine who controls Congress and dozens of statehouses during the final two years of Democratic President Barack Obama's term. He mentioned 12 Republicans who represent districts that Obama won last year and four more where Republican Mitt Romney won by less than 2 percentage points. Hogue said it could matter in the North Carolina Senate race, as well, particularly if state House Speaker Tom Tillis ends up as the GOP challenger to Sen. Kay Hagan. The first-term senator took to her Twitter account recently to blast Raleigh Republicans. "Women are watching," she wrote.

Democrats need 18 more seats to run the House. Republicans must net a six-seat gain to control the Senate.

At the National Republican Congressional Committee, spokeswoman Andrea Bozek suggested the best GOP strategy would be to shift the conversation to Obama's health care law, key parts of which the president has delayed. "Let's be clear: It's the House Democrats who are extreme on women's health care," she said. "That law is something women are extremely concerned about, and that's the politically toxic issue for Democrats."

Polls on abortion have long suggested nuanced divisions in public opinion. In a May Gallup poll, 26 percent of Americans said the procedure always should be legal; 20 percent said outlaw it in all cases. Fifty-two percent, meanwhile, said it should legal under some circumstances, implying acceptance of legal restrictions. Yet fewer 42 percent feel it's morally defensible to end a pregnancy, while 49 percent said it's morally wrong.

A Pew Research Center poll in January, 41 percent said Democrats better represent their views on abortion; 36 percent opted for Republicans on the issue.

"The country is not willing yet to ban all abortions, but they do want a lot more limitations," argued Tobias, the National Right to Life chief. She said tighter clinic regulations and the "fetal-pain bills," the mid-pregnancy bans based on the presumption that a fetus can feel pain at that point, are "very reasonable ... protections for the unborn child and their mothers."

The Supreme Court holds that states can ban most abortions at the point a fetus could survive once born. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has opposed fetal-pain proposals. The group notes that medical professionals date pregnancy from a woman's last menstrual period, not conception or fertilization. The Congress says viability occurs about 24 weeks from the start of a pregnancy and that the most comprehensive study of fetal pain "concluded that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester," which begins with week 28.

Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead predicted Gosnell trial and conviction will prove a turning point. "The other side just talks about the rights of a woman to do what she wants with her body, but they never about the child within that body," Armistead said. "The middle ground will yield to the conservative side the more hard evidence we see that we're dealing with a life inside the woman's body."

Yet voters' ambiguity leaves at least a few Republicans wincing at making abortion a top issue. "Everyone already knows the Republican Party is the pro-life party," said New Hampshire's Steve Duprey, an RNC member who supports abortion rights.

The national party's analysis of the 2012 election loss, released in March with considerable fanfare, didn't mention abortion. But it acknowledged characterizations of the GOP as "narrow minded," ''out of touch" and a party of "stuffy old men" labels used in focus groups of former Republican voters. Abortion, Duprey said, fits into that critique: "The more strident we sound, the more difficult it becomes" to expand.

But Tobias promised the issue won't go away any time soon. If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid does what's expected and doesn't bring an abortion bill to the floor, she said, "We'll just ask the House to vote on it again in 2014."

___

AP Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta in Washington and Associated Press writer Gary Robertson in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Barrow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP

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NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters) - Canadian Anthony Bennett, a power forward who played one year at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, leaped over a pair of touted centers to emerge as number one pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers at Thursday's NBA Draft.

While many draft analysts predicted Nerlens Noel of Kentucky or Ukrainian Alex Len of Maryland would go No. 1, the versatile, 6-foot-8 (2.03 m) Bennett was the surprise top choice of a Cavs team that finished last season with a 24-58 record.

"I'm just as surprised as everybody else," Bennett, who averaged 16.1 points and 8.1 rebounds as a freshman at Las Vegas last season, told reporters at Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets.

"I heard everything was up for grabs. But I'm just real happy, glad that I have this opportunity, and I just got to thank God for everything."

Injuries to Noel (knee) and Len (foot) may have cooled the Cavs to those young big men, but Toronto native Bennett himself required shoulder surgery at the end of his college season and that did not deter the Cavaliers.

"It's just crazy. Made history," said an excited Bennett. "It's just like a long-time dream that I had since I first started playing basketball.

"It's just crazy."

Bennett may be a touch smaller than classic the NBA power forward size, but he is strong, has a wide wingspan and good finishing moves around the rim, along with an accurate jumper that allows him to work from the outside as well.

"I can contribute at the four, at the three," said the 20-year-old. "There's things I still need to work on, but I feel like I'm a great team mate, unselfish. I think I can fit in right away."

Bennett said he had no clue he was going number one overall.

"When they said my name, that's when I knew," he said. "I had no idea before."

Bennett will be joining compatriot Tristan Thompson on the Cavs, who took the Canadian forward with the fourth overall pick in the 2011 draft. Thompson averaged 11.7 points and 9.4 rebounds a game last season for Cleveland.

"He's just a great guy,' said Bennett. "He seems real cool. Both from the same area. I'm going to be seeing him a lot."

Bennett was the first UNLV player to be voted Mountain West Freshman of the Year in 13 seasons and earned first-team All-Mountain West honors after leading the Rebels in scoring, rebounding and three-point percentage.

The Canadian scored in double figures in his first 17 games as a collegian, racking up 12 double-doubles, and scored 20 or more points 13 times.

Bennett's coach, Dave Rice, gave a sterling recommendation of his young forward before the draft.

"There's not much that he can't do on a court," said Rice.

"He can score from the perimeter. He can score in the post. He's a fabulous rebounder. The only thing that he lacked coming in was just experience."

Bennett predicted Canadians could go back-to-back atop the NBA Draft with Andrew Wiggins looming as a dominant player at Kansas.

"Next year with Wiggins, hopefully he does well at Kansas," said Bennett. "I'm rooting for him. I'm pretty sure he'll get that No. 1 spot."

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)

TOKYO (Reuters) - When Harper meets Kirby, he is a grown man and she is a child. He gives her a toy pony, tells her he'll be back, then vanishes - into Chicago in the 1930s and a mysterious house that opens onto other times. Later, he tries to kill her.

"The Shining Girls", by South African Lauren Beukes, traces Harper's compulsion to murder the women he knows as "The Shining Girls" and Kirby's stubborn fight to unravel the mystery behind him and bring him down.

Beukes has also worked as a print journalist, written screenplays, developed animated TV shows, directed a documentary and written comics. She won the Arthur C. Clarke award for "Zoo City", her previous novel.

Beukes spoke with Reuters about her book and how she works.

Q: What got this going?

A: I was messing around on Twitter, and I said I should probably write a book about a time-traveling serial killer. One of the few times on Twitter that's paid off for me. As soon as I had the idea I knew I could do something really interesting with it. It wouldn't be Bill and Ted meets Jack the Ripper but that I could bring all this stuff that I'm interested in into it. I'm passionate about a lot of social issues - look at violence against women and how women's roles have changed in society and bring this all into the book. When I told people I wrote about a time-travelling serial killer they all said, 'Oh, I want to read that.' So it's kind of a way of getting people to read a fun book where I can also talk about all of those things I'm passionate about.

Q: How did you develop the idea from there?

A: Books develop on their own. I had the idea of opening with Harper walking across the grass to give Kirby a 'My Little Pony' which didn't exist yet. Then there's the attempt on her life and she survives ... I knew exactly what the ending would be and then it was just a matter of filling in the details and finding who the Shining Girls would be. Writing, to me, is like driving at night. I know where I'm leaving from and where I'm going, but the rest of the time I'm driving in the dark. I can see 20 feet ahead of me in the headlights.

Q: How did you come up with the idea of The House being the time travel vector?

A: A lot of this stuff is intuitive. It's when you let your consciousness off the leash to romp in the grass that you come up with the really interesting ideas. I knew it was going to be a house right away, I knew how Harper was going to find the key. I think you can read that in any number of ways, that he inhabits the place. I think in some ways we are haunted by history and in his case that became very literal.

Q: Were Harper and Kirby intuitive too?

A: Kirby was intuitive. As you write, you kind of start with one idea and then discover your own direction. But Harper? I didn't want him to be a Hannibal Lector type of hero killer. I did a lot of research into real serial killers and listened to a lot of true crime podcasts, especially on the treadmill. You don't need a personal trainer, you run faster when you're listening to serial killer podcasts. A lot of them are just vile, contemptible men, who have major impotence problems with real power in their lives and also sexual dysfunction ...

The only way I could deal with actually writing Harper, because he is so loathsome, was by hurting him at every possible opportunity, but then I had to keep track of the injuries. I know he's a construct, so as soon as I stepped away from my computer I could leave him behind. But I always had to come back to him and sit down and write him. I'd be quite angry writing his chapters. But I think it's also quite important to portray serial killers as what they really are, and not the sexy Hannibal Lector/Dexter types.

Q. You've said that adding elements of sci-fi and fantasy to your novels allows you to deal with issues you might not be able to otherwise.

A: Yes, it allows you to make a more interesting story, a more fun story. But it's also a way of getting over issue fatigue. It's a way of exploring big ideas and coming back to who we are, like putting a distorting mirror up that perversely allows you to see more clearly.

Q: Any advice for aspiring writers?

A: I messed around on my first book for four years, and the only reason I finished it was that the University of Capetown, where I was doing my MA, said if I didn't finish it they were going to kick me out. Then I finished it in three months, no problem. So my advice would be to set a reasonable deadline and finish the damn book. Stop second-guessing yourself, quiet the inner critic, and write to the end. Don't worry if it's a mess, it's supposed to be. It's a first draft. You only know what you have when you get to the end. Then you can go back and tinker with it all you like, but just get to the end.

It doesn't get any easier. It's still terrifying. I always know my endings, it's not that I don't know where I'm going, but you don't know what you have until the end. You have to write through. I know there are some writers who write detailed 40-page outlines and then stick to them, but I can't do that. To me it's more of a pirate map than a GPS. I know where I'm going but how I get there, that's where the magic comes in. You surprise yourself in writing, and that's the magic of writing. When you get to the end, that's when you know what you have. The book that you have in your head will never match reality, it's a Platonic ideal, it's imaginary. What's on the page is real, how it's come out is real. And it's often more interesting than the Platonic ideal you had in your head.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies)

TOKYO (Reuters) - When Harper meets Kirby, he is a grown man and she is a child. He gives her a toy pony, tells her he'll be back, then vanishes - into Chicago in the 1930s and a mysterious house that opens onto other times. Later, he tries to kill her.

"The Shining Girls", by South African Lauren Beukes, traces Harper's compulsion to murder the women he knows as "The Shining Girls" and Kirby's stubborn fight to unravel the mystery behind him and bring him down.

Beukes has also worked as a print journalist, written screenplays, developed animated TV shows, directed a documentary and written comics. She won the Arthur C. Clarke award for "Zoo City", her previous novel.

Beukes spoke with Reuters about her book and how she works.

Q: What got this going?

A: I was messing around on Twitter, and I said I should probably write a book about a time-traveling serial killer. One of the few times on Twitter that's paid off for me. As soon as I had the idea I knew I could do something really interesting with it. It wouldn't be Bill and Ted meets Jack the Ripper but that I could bring all this stuff that I'm interested in into it. I'm passionate about a lot of social issues - look at violence against women and how women's roles have changed in society and bring this all into the book. When I told people I wrote about a time-travelling serial killer they all said, 'Oh, I want to read that.' So it's kind of a way of getting people to read a fun book where I can also talk about all of those things I'm passionate about.

Q: How did you develop the idea from there?

A: Books develop on their own. I had the idea of opening with Harper walking across the grass to give Kirby a 'My Little Pony' which didn't exist yet. Then there's the attempt on her life and she survives ... I knew exactly what the ending would be and then it was just a matter of filling in the details and finding who the Shining Girls would be. Writing, to me, is like driving at night. I know where I'm leaving from and where I'm going, but the rest of the time I'm driving in the dark. I can see 20 feet ahead of me in the headlights.

Q: How did you come up with the idea of The House being the time travel vector?

A: A lot of this stuff is intuitive. It's when you let your consciousness off the leash to romp in the grass that you come up with the really interesting ideas. I knew it was going to be a house right away, I knew how Harper was going to find the key. I think you can read that in any number of ways, that he inhabits the place. I think in some ways we are haunted by history and in his case that became very literal.

Q: Were Harper and Kirby intuitive too?

A: Kirby was intuitive. As you write, you kind of start with one idea and then discover your own direction. But Harper? I didn't want him to be a Hannibal Lector type of hero killer. I did a lot of research into real serial killers and listened to a lot of true crime podcasts, especially on the treadmill. You don't need a personal trainer, you run faster when you're listening to serial killer podcasts. A lot of them are just vile, contemptible men, who have major impotence problems with real power in their lives and also sexual dysfunction ...

The only way I could deal with actually writing Harper, because he is so loathsome, was by hurting him at every possible opportunity, but then I had to keep track of the injuries. I know he's a construct, so as soon as I stepped away from my computer I could leave him behind. But I always had to come back to him and sit down and write him. I'd be quite angry writing his chapters. But I think it's also quite important to portray serial killers as what they really are, and not the sexy Hannibal Lector/Dexter types.

Q. You've said that adding elements of sci-fi and fantasy to your novels allows you to deal with issues you might not be able to otherwise.

A: Yes, it allows you to make a more interesting story, a more fun story. But it's also a way of getting over issue fatigue. It's a way of exploring big ideas and coming back to who we are, like putting a distorting mirror up that perversely allows you to see more clearly.

Q: Any advice for aspiring writers?

A: I messed around on my first book for four years, and the only reason I finished it was that the University of Capetown, where I was doing my MA, said if I didn't finish it they were going to kick me out. Then I finished it in three months, no problem. So my advice would be to set a reasonable deadline and finish the damn book. Stop second-guessing yourself, quiet the inner critic, and write to the end. Don't worry if it's a mess, it's supposed to be. It's a first draft. You only know what you have when you get to the end. Then you can go back and tinker with it all you like, but just get to the end.

It doesn't get any easier. It's still terrifying. I always know my endings, it's not that I don't know where I'm going, but you don't know what you have until the end. You have to write through. I know there are some writers who write detailed 40-page outlines and then stick to them, but I can't do that. To me it's more of a pirate map than a GPS. I know where I'm going but how I get there, that's where the magic comes in. You surprise yourself in writing, and that's the magic of writing. When you get to the end, that's when you know what you have. The book that you have in your head will never match reality, it's a Platonic ideal, it's imaginary. What's on the page is real, how it's come out is real. And it's often more interesting than the Platonic ideal you had in your head.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies)

RELATED:

The Supreme Court , essentially leaving the definition of marriage to the states. But the court upped the stakes in the state-by-state fight when they effectively provided federal benefits to LGBT couples who are already, or will become, legally married. In New Jersey, , which technically has no law on the books either way on gay marriage. The state does , but the equality of those to a marriage in the state is a. The DOMA decision is cited as the specific reason the group will now ask for a judge to rule in court on the state's position on gay marriage, with a hearing tentatively set for August 15th. Meanwhile, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who has said that he believes marriage is between a man and a woman, tentatively supports a November referendum on the issue, even as Democrats in the state's legislatureon a same-sex marriage bill.

RELATED:

New Jersey and Michigan aren't the only states seeing new or renewed challenges to get same-sex marriage rights after SCOTUS's ruling. In Florida, for a possible court challenge there. There are, where state law neither grants nor prohibits gay marriage: one seeking a court order for a county clerk to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, and another seeking to test whether the state will recognize gay marriages from other states. There's anto the Utah amendment banning recognition of same-sex marriages, and , where there's also a constitutional ban on gay marriage. There's also achallenging that state's constitutional ban after DOMA, but that suit almost certainly doesn't make a strong legal case — the plaintiff, a retired nuclear engineer, is representing himself, apparently without help from national or state advocacy groups. According to the , there are at least eight notable challenges to state marriage equality bans pending in the courts. Those probably include two cases,, that could end up tempting SCOTUS in a future term to make a decision on constitutional bans against gay marriage — currently in place in 29 states. 

LONDON (Reuters) - Japanese drugmaker Eisai is to stop selling its new epilepsy therapy Fycompa in Germany - the biggest market for the product - following a row over the price it can charge for the drug.

The case highlights the growing battle-lines between drug companies and healthcare providers in Europe, where governments are taking a tough line on social spending at a time of economic austerity.

Germany's new system for determining drug prices is a particular point of friction because it requires manufacturers to demonstrate that new medicines work better than older ones before they can charge a premium.

The German system was implemented in 2010 as part of a drug pricing law designed to save billions of euros.

It has already led to clashes over prices for a number of other drugs from several companies. GlaxoSmithKline last year decided to keep its rival epilepsy treatment Trobalt off the German market after a similar pricing row.

In the case of Fycompa, the German Federal Joint Committee, or G-BA, decided the drug offered no additional benefit and, as a result the price for the once-daily medicine would be less than 1 euro ($1.3) per dose, an Eisai spokeswoman said.

That is in line with generic drug comparators but is way below the 7 to 8 euros that Eisai has been charging for Fycompa in European markets.

Eisai said it could not accept the G-BA decision and it would therefore suspend commercial distribution temporarily while it seeks to have the assessment overturned - although it will not be able to apply for a review until March 2014.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 German patients suffering with epilepsy currently take Fycompa and the country is the largest single market for the medicine, which is approved but yet to be launched in the United States and is not on sale in Japan.

The new German drug pricing system is especially controversial because there are inevitable differences of opinion over whether or not a new drug really does offer benefits over existing products.

Furthermore, German drug prices are frequently used as a reference point by healthcare providers in other European countries, so accepting a sharply lower price there has potentially damaging knock-on effects on the price companies can charge elsewhere.

Eisai's drug, chemically known as perampanel, is the first approved anti-epileptic that selectively targets so-called AMPA receptors, which are thought to play a central role in seizures.

Commercial availability of Fycompa is expected to continue in Germany until the end of the year, as existing stocks are run down. Eisai said it would put in place a continued access program for existing patients, details of which will be announced shortly.

($1 = 0.7637 euros)

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

With the start of NFL training camp set for the end of the month, Payton says he was planning to spend a week relaxing at The Greenbrier resort. One thing led to another, and Payton ended up agreeing to help Palmer, who gave his regular caddie the week off.

Payton says after two days of carrying Palmer's clubs during practice rounds and pro-am events, he's realized "this isn't a vacation."

Payton compares being a caddie to visualizing an NFL game through the eyes of a quarterback and says he's taking the opportunity seriously.

The tournament starts Thursday in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.