Current event example of "irony"

I won't write an essay, because that defeats the presentation of the irony. So I will list the events like a news zipper, so the irony gradually unfolds to its crescendo of flattened disappointment.

1. The Pope in Australia is brought some "zoo visitors," and a photograph of a huge snake being uncomfortably and gingerly touched by the Pope is disseminated around the world.

2. I open an article in one of my semi-regular online newspaper reads, Bahrain news. The article is about one subject, but when I open the article I am disgusted by a photo that is attached to the article but has nothing to do with it. The photograph shows Asian Indian man and woman, with the woman placing a thick dark black snake under her mouth.

3. Guam is a US territory in the Pacific Ocean, about one thousand miles from Tokyo. It was due to have a parade today to celebrate its liberation from Japanese invaders during World War II. Guam is mostly Catholic, due to Jesuits who accompanied the Spanish explorers and conquerors hundreds of years ago. Guam is also one of the most famous examples of a "bio invasion," where a destructive animal is accidentally introduced and ends up wiping out much of the native bird and animal species. Guam is overrun since World War II with the "brown snake."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guam
Brown Tree Snake.
Thought to be a stowaway on a U.S. military transport near the end of World War II, the slightly venomous—but rather harmless—brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) came to Guam and killed virtually all of the native bird population on an island that has no native species of snake; this snake has no natural predators on the island. Although some studies have suggested a high density of the brown tree snake, residents rarely see these nocturnal snakes. Prodigious climbers, the snakes cause frequent blackouts by shorting across lines and transformers.[12]

4. Guam has United States military base and planes from various bases in the USA rotate duty at the base in Guam. A B-52 bomber from Barksdale, Louisiana had recently been assigned on the Guam rotation. Here in Mississippi I am not very far from Louisiana, the "next state over."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barksdale_AFB%2C_LA

5. The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI concludes his Australian visit for World Youth Day, and boards a Quantas airplane for his and his entourage's return to Italy.

6. The B-52 from Barksdale takes off from Guam the same day as the Pope and in fact within an hour or two, intending to do a fly-over for Guam's "Liberation Day" celebratory parade.

7. Fifteen minutes before it is supposed to fly over the parade, the B-52 from Barksdale crashes.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN21450270

Bodies are being recovered.

That is an example of the unfolding of a very ironic event. What could have seemed like repeated "humorous" references to "snakes" (as in their Biblical satanic context) results in the not very funny crashing of an American Air Force bomber and the loss of the lives of six service people.