News Brief

EASTENDERS: Max hit-and-run revealed driver tonight
EASTENDERS fans are in for a treat tonight — the Walford One confesses to mowing down Max Branning. Max (Jake Wood) is on a life support machine after being knocked over in a hit-and-run. And he is so disliked that the police have heaps of suspects, including ex-wife Tanya (Jo Joyner) and brother Jack Branning (Scott Maslen).

Dana Delany adds to Wisteria Lane’s twists and turns
Delany joined the cast of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES in 2007 to play Katherine Mayfair. She had her chance to be part of the series from the start. But Delany originally turned down being part of the wicked wives club.

"I had done PASADENA, and I thought it was too similar to the role I had played in that series," Delany, 52, says during an interview at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in July. "I don't think of jobs in terms of career. I look in terms of what excites me. And I felt I had already played that role.

Viewers have had the chance to follow Delany's career since she made her professional debut in the daytime drama LOVE OF LIFE in 1979.

Cairo's soap operas relocate to Chicago
Just as Memphis can claim the blues and Hollywood the silver screen, no one makes soap operas quite like the Egyptians. Throughout the Middle East, you can tune in to love-struck television serials from Cairo, even watch them in outdoor cafes from Beirut to Muscat.

It's rather fitting, then, that Alaa Al Aswany, one of Cairo's most exciting literary exports in some time, should elicit a whiff of this popular genre in his social novels. Two years ago, he made his literary debut with "The Yacoubian Building," a raucous, bawdy tale of the goings-on inside a Cairo apartment building.

He has transplanted his gaze to Chicago, conjuring a cast of emigrant Egyptians studying in the department of histology at the University of Illinois. All are struggling to make sense of America after Sept. 11.

A history of Procter & Gamble
If you're thinking about starting a business in the current economic maelstrom, take heart: Some of America's most famous companies began during recessions, depressions and bank panics. Here's a look back at the breakthrough moments for a handful of entrepreneurs whose startups went on to become corporate icons.

No one was sure if paper money was worth anything in the Panic of 1837. Banks closed their doors in the face of shouting mobs, and the economy tanked. The panic set off a five-year depression, but it also prompted two Cincinnati merchants to team up. Soapmaker William Procter and candle maker James Gamble were married to sisters from the same family, but they found themselves competing to buy the hog fat they needed for their raw supplies. Their father-in-law suggested they become partners.

Premiere episode of "Conscious Living Radio with Catherine Hickland"
ONE LIFE TO LIVE's Catherine Hickland makes a wonderful host in this debut of her new Blogtalk Radio show.