Interviewing

Here are excerpts from interviews with men identified as allied soldiers captured by Iraq. The interviews were broadcast on Iraqi television. The men, three Americans, two Britons and an Italian pilot, responded to questions in English by an Iraqi interrogator. A seventh POW, identified as a Kuwaiti, was interviewed in Arabic. His interview was unavailable. * Marine Corps Lt. Col. Clifford M.

OK, you made it inside the door for a job interview. That's an accomplishment. But given the recession, expect plenty of other candidates in the waiting room ready to plead their cases, too. So how do you walk out with the job? Start by not making a mistake before you can even say hello: Show up on time and dress properly.

It was another murder story. Three brothers were asleep on the living room floor of their house when a gunman kicked opened the front door and began shooting. One brother died, another was wounded. My job as the police reporter was to go to the scene and find out what happened and, if possible, why. It meant talking to the police, neighbors, witnesses and most important, relatives. Interviewing bereaved loved ones is one of the most difficult parts of being a police reporter.

You've shined your shoes, worn your best suit and brightest smile, and applied the correct amount of pressure in that all-important first handshake. And yet, just minutes into the job interview you expected to ace, you begin to flounder. The interviewer seems to deliberately put you on the spot, asking embarrassing questions about why you left your previous job. Then there are those probing questions about what you can do for this company.

Radio station KMNY-AM, licensed out of Pomona and Anaheim, has been fined $10,000 by the Federal Communications Commission, in part for failing to disclose to listeners that stockbrokers and investment counselors interviewed on its financial programs had paid for their air time.

There are many things to be learned from the McMartin Pre-School molestation case, but perhaps the most important lesson of all is how not to talk to children, according to top child-development experts. Experts across the country say the interview techniques intended to extract the truth from youngsters who attended the Manhattan Beach nursery school were so misguided as to make the children seem coerced, rehearsed and ultimately unbelievable to the jury.

The Los Angeles Fire Department has abruptly canceled interviews for captain positions because department officials have failed to heed a City Council directive to overhaul the interview process in response to a critical audit that found racism and sexism pervaded the department's hiring and promotion practices. More than 90 firefighters had signed up for the interviews, which were scheduled to start Friday, but now will be postponed for at least two months.

Attorneys for accused murderer Michael R. Pacewitz tried Wednesday to stop the news media from publishing jailhouse interviews with him, but a judge refused to issue such an order, saying freedom of the press was at stake. Deputy Public Defender Kevin J. Phillips sought a temporary restraining order to bar The Times and the Orange County Register from publishing comments Pace-witz made to reporters in a joint, one-hour interview in the medical ward at Orange County Jail.

Stephen Gilroy sat alone in the Presidential Forum room, videotaping the enigmatic figure on the television screen who was explaining how he decided to resign from the presidency of the United States. When former President Richard M. Nixon was finished, Gilroy clicked off his videocassette recorder and walked out, leaving behind hundreds of questions and answers about a man who had intrigued him for years. "I would like to spend the whole day in here," he said.

In a tight job market, the question of what to wear on a job interview becomes especially crucial to men and women. Clothes can make or break an applicant's chances of landing a job. "You won't get the job based on your clothing, but you could lose it," David Schwartz, co-owner of David Rickey & Co. men's clothier in Costa Mesa. He has seen job applicants commit every kind of fashion gaffe.