Your Flight has Been Cancelled

I wonder why news doesn't reach us, except, as far as I can tell, from the foreign press (link from Juan Cole):

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Heavy fighting outside Baghdad International Airport prevented two Jordanian passenger planes from landing Monday, the airline spokesman said.

Royal Jordanian's planes made quick turns over Baghdad, where the airport's control tower denied the aircraft permission to land because of heavy fighting nearby, a spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

The two flights - in the morning and at noon - returned to Amman safely, he said. The second flight carried Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan, the minister told reporters in Amman afterward. Shaalan was trying to return to Iraq after visiting Jordan.

And, to follow up, I guess the US, and the media, has grown tired of the whole 'hostage' thing. Maybe the attitiude is 'been there, done that,' because this is the first I've seen regarding Ray Hallums since he was captured on November 1st of last year:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A newly released videotape shows an American taken hostage last year in Iraq pleading to be spared from a "definite death" as a rifle barrel points at his head.

You'd think there would be, oh, I don't know, at least a wave of publicity regarding Hallums and/or others who've been captured thanks to the liberation followed by the utter inability of the occupation forces to, well, occupy much more than highly secured locations, leaving the rest of the nation to fend for itself. But I guess that's the kind of 'negative' reporting that gets in the way of positive news...

Well, ok...someone please tell me today's "positive" story.

Oh, and here's something that CNN drops into paragraph 14:

Meanwhile, six U.S. soldiers died Monday -- one in a roadside bombing, and five in a vehicle accident.

Deaths of US soldiers merit exactly one sentence. What a display of support.