The BBC News website reported in detail on events in Iraq throughout 7 April, to try to give the fullest and most accurate picture possible of the reality of life there, almost three years after the fall of Baghdad.
On this page, from dawn to dusk Baghdad time, we reported the news in greater detail than usual as well as taking a look at what the Iraqi media were saying.
Normal life continues in Iraq, despite the threat of violence
There was also special coverage on BBC News 24 in the UK and on BBC World, and lin-depth reports on the BBC World Service, the Arabic Service, and Radio Five Live.
This was how the day unfolded.
1900-2000 local time (1500-1600 GMT)
NEWS 1920: US military commanders in Iraq say a soldier from the US Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team was killed on Thursday when his combat patrol was struck a roadside bomb near Beiji, 250km (155 miles) north of Baghdad.
NEWS 1919: Reuters news agency reports that a Shia tailor was shot dead by gunmen inside his
shop in the al-Zab area about 70 km (40 miles) southwest of the
northern oil city of Kirkuk, according to police.
1800-1900 local time (1400-1500 GMT)
NEWS 1851: Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, the prayer leader at the Buratha mosque and an Iraqi MP, accused Sunni politicians and clerics of waging "a campaign of distortions and lies against the mosque, claiming that it includes Sunni prisoners and the mass graves of Sunnis".
"Shias are the ones who are targeted as part of this dirty sectarian war waged against them as the world watches silently," he told al-Arabiya, a pan-Arab TV station.
UPDATE 1840: Three suicide bombers kill at least 69 people and wound 130 others at a Shia mosque in northern Baghdad. Worshippers were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers.
The attacks took place outside the Buratha mosque, one of the most important Shia mosques in the capital. Its prayer leader, Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, is a member of parliament and an important figure in Iraq's largest Shia political party, the United Iraqi Alliance. Police said he escaped unhurt, the Associated Press reported.
Soon after the attack, appeals were broadcast on TV for members of the public to give blood. The injured were ferried to five hospitals across the capital in ambulances and private cars. An Iraqi security official told AFP that two of the bombers were disguised as women.
UPDATE 1809: Al-Iraqiya TV reports that as least 69 people were killed and 130 injured in a suicide bomb attack on a Shia mosque in northern Baghdad.
NEWS 1805: A US soldier has died of wounds sustained during a patrol in western Baghdad, the US military says. The statement says the soldier's patrol came under small arms fire.
1700-1800 local time (1300-1400 GMT)
UPDATE 1751: Death toll in the Buratha mosque blast rises to at least 46.
UPDATE 1710: A series of explosions hit a Shia mosque in northern Baghdad just after Friday prayers. At least 40 people have died and 130 people are injured, police say. The BBC Baghdad bureau confirms that three suicide bombers took part in the attack.
The BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad says the Buratha mosque is one of the most important for Shia Muslims in the capital and can hold hundreds of people. The prayer leader at the mosque, Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, is a member of parliament and an important figure in Iraq's largest Shia political party, the United Iraqi Alliance.
Appeals are being broadcast on Iraqi TV for people to give blood.
1600-1700 local time (1200-1300 GMT)
NEWS 1643: AFP reports that at least 40 people have been killed and 45 injured in a suicide bombing at the Buratha mosque in northern Baghdad. The prayer leader at the mosque is Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, an MP and member of the largest political bloc in Iraq, the Shia United Iraqi Alliance.
NEWS 1638: Iraqi police Maj Falah al-Mohammadawi said 40 people were killed in an explosion at a Shia mosque in northern Baghdad, the Associated press reports.
NEWS 1627: AFP reports that the mosque in northern Baghdad hit by a large explosion is the Buratha mosque, the same mosque that was earlier the target of a mortar attack. AFP says that 20 people have been killed and 30 injured.
NEWS 1623: BBC bureau in Baghdad confirms at least 40 dead in an apparent suicide attack on a mosque in the city. It is not clear if the explosion was inside or outside the building, or whether there were two explosions.
NEWS 1620: AFP reports that 20 people have been killed and 30 injured in a bombing at a Baghdad mosque.
NEWS 1610: Two suicide bombers kill at least 40 people at a Baghdad mosque, Reuters reports, quoting Iraqi police.
1500-1600 local time (1100-1200 GMT)
NEWS 1542: Three mortar shells are fired at a Shia mosque in the Kazimiya area of northern Baghdad. Police say the mortars missed their target. There are reports of casualties. The prayer leader at the Buratha mosque is Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, an MP and member of the largest political bloc in Iraq, the Shia United Iraqi Alliance.
NEWS 1532: Gunmen kill four men in two separate attacks in and near Baquba, AFP reports. Two men are killed and at least one person wounded when gunmen open fire near the city. Two others are also shot dead by gunmen in Baquba's north-western Yarmuk area.
Medics treat a man injured in the Baquba shooting
Also on Friday, police find two unidentified bodies riddled with bullets in Baghdad's Adhamiya neighbourhood, AFP reports.
MEDIA 1500: In the Kurdish north, the KTV pro-Kurdistan Democratic Party channel is running a phone-in programme on the scandal of government cars being used for private purposes. Almost all the TV stations there were broadcasting programmes from the town of Kore, the scene of a battle between Kurdish peshmerga forces and Saddam's army in 1991.
1400-1500 local time (1000-1100 GMT)
MEDIA 1454: A young boy appears on al-Iraqiya TV in a programme highlighting the achievements of the armed forces. The boy praises the soldiers. "The men in this tank are my brothers. They are here to defend us and defend Iraq against terrorists. When I grow up, I will be an army officer in order to defend Iraq and the Iraqis against terrorists," the boy says.
Brothers in arms... a young boy praises Iraq's soldiers
NEWS 1422: Radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr blames the US-led forces for the rampant violence across Iraq, including a car bombing on Thursday in Najaf that killed 10 people and 42 were injured, AFP reports. "This is not the first time that the occupation forces and their death squads have resorted to killings," Mr Sadr says during a Friday prayers sermon in Kufa.
Mr Sadr also proposes a phased withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. "To begin with they should exit the cities and take positions outside the cities and hand over security for the cities to the Iraqi forces," he says.
1300-1400 local time (0900-1000 GMT)
MEDIA 1300: Al-Sharqiya TV's bulletin summary:
The US Iraq ambassador announces that talks have been held with groups linked to insurgency; US President George W Bush says he's running out of patience with Iraqi leaders; a roadside bomb targets an Iraqi police patrol causing no casualties; US State Department urges Iraqis to exercise self-restraint after attack near the tomb of Imam Ali in Najaf on Thursday.
1200-1300 local time (0800-0900 GMT)
NEWS 1247: Al-Arabiya Television in Dubai reports that the controller-general of
the Iraqi Islamic Virtue (Fadilah) Party Sheikh Muhammad
al-Ya'qubi has decided to dissolve all the party's leading
committees and has set up a special caretaker committee to pave the way for disbanding
the party. No reason was given for the move. The Islamic Virtue Party, which won 15 seats in parliament,
is one of the groups within the Shia United Iraqi Alliance.
PRESS HEADLINES:Jaafari insists he will not step aside unless asked by parliament
Talabani: There is a lot for us to learn from Poland in terms of democratisation
Iraqi NGO demands international intervention to ward off civil war
Former Iraqi Revolutionary Court judge justifies death sentences over Dujail
Najaf: Scores killed, wounded in car bombing near 'Valley of Peace' cemetery
US military: Capture of ex-Saddam aide affiliated to Al-Qaeda
Chicken shipment barred from entering Iraq for fear of bird flu infection
Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Baghdad edition:
Al-Ahali Iraq:Jaafari holds on to premiership despite controversy over nomination
Sistani will not interfere in choice of PM
Parliamentary blocs demand militias be barred from joining army and police
Sadrists confirm backing for Jaafari
Allawi: Call for incorporation of militias into army big mistake
US forces building six permanent bases in Iraq
1100-1200 local time (0700-0800 GMT)
MEDIA 1130: TV station al-Iraqiya runs its Romeo and Juliet-like soap opera Love Comes in Unexpected Ways, a story of family and vengeance.
The climax of the episode is a marriage proposal to Yasmin from the man whose family has sworn vengeance against hers. Yasmin sighs and says: "These are the sweetest words I have ever heard from you. "
Yasmin hears the "sweetest words": Will you marry me?
NEWS 1107: AFP reports on the security measures around Najaf the day after a bombing killed 10 people in Najaf. "We have eased the curfew on the main roads but have taken other security measures such as increasing the number of guards and checkpoints across the city," AFP quotes Najaf deputy governor Hassan Abtan as saying.
1000-1100 local time (0600-0700 GMT)
MEDIA 1030: A TV show on al-Iraqiya features an artists giving a lesson on drawing with crayons. It then shows a painter from India who paints murals with a paintbrush in his mouth. It then runs a report on the overall winner of the Crufts Dog Show in London.
And the winner is ....
Meanwhile al-Sharqiya TV is showing a lottery programme called Ration Card. The presenter, a young red-haired woman, pulls a ball out of rolling drum to select the winning ration card number. The winner is then contacted and told the good news - they have won US $1,000.
NEWS 1006: AP reports that Iraq's interior ministry has warned Iraqis not to gather in markets or near mosques and churches because of a specific threat of car bombings. Officials say they have intelligence that insurgents are planning seven car bombings in Baghdad.
0900-1000 local time (0500-0600 GMT)
MEDIA 0950: Al-Iraqiya TV runs a report about an orphanage. The reporter has a three or four-year-old boy on his lap, and asks the audience: "Can you help find this child's parents?"
MEDIA 0950: Al-Sharqiya TV carries a report on Arab students visiting the northern city of Mosul, and enjoying taking part in traditional Iraqi singing and dancing.
NEWS 0907: Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari says that his "confidence in the people is high and I call on them to judge me fairly when I do good work and also judge me fairly when I don't". The comment is broadcast on al-Iraqiya TV. Mr Jaafari has been under pressure to stand down from Kurdish and Sunni political leaders.
NEWS 0902: Reuters news agency quotes Dennis McNamara of the UN's Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs as saying that more than a million people remain internally displaced in Iraq - mainly marsh Arabs and Kurds who fled after uprisings against Saddam Hussein.
0800-0900 local time (0400-0500 GMT)
MEDIA 0900: Al-Iraqiya TV news leads with Thursday's car bomb attack in Najaf that left 10 people dead, followed by a round-up of security-related incidents such as the arrests of suspected insurgents.
MEDIA 0805: Al-Iraqiya TV's Good Morning Iraq programme broadcasts an interview with a former Iraqi international basketball player, Munzir Ali Shnawah. He criticises the current infrastructure for basketball in Iraq: "Since the occupation, no new sports facilities have been built. There is only one basketball court and this was inherited from the former regime."
Munzir Ali Shnawah is campaigning for better facilities for basketball players
0700-0800 local time (0300-0400 GMT)
NEWS 0800: The interim President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, says that despite the continuing violence, many Iraqis feel freer under the new system of government. "For the first time, we Iraqis enjoy all kinds of democratic rights," he tells the BBC. He also said that the dispute over who should lead the new Iraqi government, at the centre of which is interim PM Ibrahim Jaafari, was one of the main obstacles to political progress in Iraq. Mr Talabani also warned that a "real invasion is coming from the Zarqawi group, from al-Qaeda. Thousands and thousands of foreigners are coming to our country to fight in the name of jihad".
0600-0700 local time (0200-0300 GMT)
NEWS 0643: The day begins with the news that the US ambassador to Iraq has said he believes that talks between US officials and groups linked to the insurgency have led to a fall in the number of attacks on American troops. But in the interview with the BBC, Zalmay Khalilzad warns that civil war in Iraq remains a real risk.