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April 18, 2012 | | HOOKERS & VEGAS The administration finally gets tainted—albeit indirectly—by scandal, with Secret Service agents busted for frolicking with hookers in Colombia and the GSA blowing close to a million dollars on Vegas trips. Expect Obama foes to make hay, says Michelle Cottle. Facebook Facebook’s purchase of Instagram for $1 billion took everyone by surprise—including Facebook's board. Mark Zuckerberg told his board the day before the deal was publicly announced that they were buying the photo-sharing app. He’d worked out the deal himself, in three days of negotiations with Instagram founder Kevin Systrom in Zuckerberg’s home. Sources tell The Wall Street Journal that Systrom initially asked for $2 billion, but Zuckerberg told him to imagine a day when Facebook was worth $200 billion or more, in which case 1 percent of the company would meet his price. Systrom was apparently convinced, and the deal was done. The board, a source says, “was told, not consulted.” Freedom Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi plans to visit Norway and the U.K. this summer, her first trip out of the country in 24 years. She spent almost 20 years under house arrest in Burma, and refused to leave the country lest the military government refuse to let her back in. She was unable to go to Oslo in 1991 to receive her Nobel Peace Prize, or to visit the U.K. to see her dying husband in 1999. She was released from house arrest in November 2010 and elected to Parliament last month. Macabre A soldier from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne division has released photographs showing soldiers posing with the remains of Afghan suicide bombers. He told the Los Angeles Times he released the photos in order to bring attention to a breakdown in leadership and discipline. The photos show soldiers holding limbs and smiling after being sent recover the remains of a suicide bomber. Another set shows them posing with the remains of insurgents blown up by their own improvised explosives. The photos were taken in 2010. The Pentagon press secretary said, "Secretary Panetta strongly rejects the conduct depicted." The military is conducting an investigation, according to the statement. CLOSET MODERATE Many voters doubt the presumptive GOP nominee is as conservative as he claims. Howard Kurtz on why Mitt’s flip-flopping past could help sell him in November as a closet moderate. | | 
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