It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

Former Japanese hostages to pay for their flight home.

Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa on Tuesday said the government will have three Japanese civilians taken hostage by a militant group on April 7 and freed last Thursday pay a total of about 660,000 yen for a chartered plane that took them from Baghdad to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Ouch! According to my limited math skills (and prevailing exchange rates) that is over $6000!