Iraq has just defeated North Korea, 1-0, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup of Nations soccer tournament. Baghdad was riveted to the match, but even if you weren't watching, you'd have known instantly that Iraq prevailed when the sound of celebratory gunfire and fireworks pierced the cold air.

Perhaps I should take it as a happy sign that the loudest booms one tends to hear in Baghdad these days are at the end of victorious soccer matches. But the soccer-crazed Iraqi fans' peculiar ritual unfortunately is no laughing matter. Three nights ago, when Iraq beat UAE, three people were killed in Diyala province in celebratory gunfire, which has become such a scourge that the Health Ministry has asked officials to ban the practice.

So just what does 'celebratory fire' sound like? I stepped outside our offices in central Baghdad tonight to record a bit of the excitement. Have a listen.

The news out of Vice President Biden's one-day stop in Iraq yesterday - his seventh trip here in two years - might just be that there was no news at all.

Biden met with the predictable list of top officials: Prime Minister Maliki, President Talabani, Iraqiyya leader Iyad Allawi, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, U.S. Ambassador Jim Jeffrey, commander of U.S. forces Gen. Lloyd Austin and others. He spoke to U.S. troops and reiterated that the December deadline for withdrawing all forces would be met. The trip was most notable for the almost bland message that the Obama administration wanted to convey.

"I've got to say, it was very positive across the board," a senior administration official told reporters today on the flight home, following a stop in Afghanistan. "I think we came away feeling that the Iraqis … were in a good place."

How things have changed in Baghdad, where violence is down and political life has begun to assume a semblance of normality. The big crises in the Middle East this week are in Lebanon and Tunisia, not here. It's possible, apparently, for the American vice president to come to Iraq now and for it not to be a major news story.

Biden's meetings were held behind closed doors, so there was little coverage in the Iraqi media. U.S. reporters also had little new to write and a few major news organizations with bureaus in Baghdad - including this one - chose not to write a story at all.

Asked what the purpose of Biden's visit was, the administration official said it was to underscore that Iraq has had a "very significant achievement" in forming most of its new government. He raised the usual laundry list of challenges - an oil law, disputed internal boundaries, relations with neighboring countries, ending U.N. Chapter VII sanctions - with Iraqi officials.

Biden acknowledged that Iraq has "a long way to go," and just as he arrived three bombs exploded in Baghdad, killing at least two people and wounding a dozen. But gone are the days that a visit by an official from Washington would snarl traffic, dominate the headlines here and back home and produce days of news coverage. It's now possible to fly in for a day of meetings and fly home like just another business trip. That's perhaps the biggest takeaway of the Biden visit.

Vice President Joe Biden is in Baghdad again, his seventh trip here in the last two years.

Biden arrived last night and met first thing this morning with the U.S. ambassador, Jim Jeffrey, and the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. Lloyd Austin. The visit was his first since Iraq announced a new government last month, led by Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and including members of all the country's major political blocs.

"I'm here to help the Iraqis celebrate the progress they made," Biden told reporters at a brief photo-op at the U.S. Embassy. "They formed a government. And that's a good thing. They have a long way to go."

Biden is expected to meet later today with Iraqi leaders including Maliki, his rival Iyad Allawi, President Jalal Talabani and the new parliamentary speaker, Osama al Nujaifi.

As if to welcome the vice president, at least two explosions occurred in Baghdad this morning, with news reports saying that two people were killed and about 11 injured.