Rhodri Davies

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Rhodri Davies
Journalist | Spain
Biography
Rhodri Davies is an Al Jazeera English journalist. Follow him on Twitter: @rhodrirdavies

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By Rhodri Davies in Middle East on February 4th, 2011
AP photo

Claims are still being made that oil, amongst other products such as alcohol, are being smuggled from northern Iraq to Iran.

The accusations that petroleum is consistently being smuggled over the mountainous border in the north at Haj Omran and to the north east of Iraq at Penjuin are denied by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), that is autonomous from Baghdad.

It has been said that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crude oil and refined products are illegally transported over the border to Iran annually.

By Rhodri Davies in Middle East on January 6th, 2011
Photo by Rhodri Davies

The Bishop of the Chaldean Archdiocese of Irbil in northern Iraq denied my request to talk to him about Christians in the country.

"You can see the life of the community here," he said, before finishing post-service greetings and embraces with his flock at St Joseph's church in Ainkawa, a Christian suburb of Iraqi Kurdistan's capital.

He was right.

By Rhodri Davies in Americas on September 28th, 2010
Photo from GETTY

Commit murder in Mexico and you are more than likely to get away with it.

Some people may think that this is added reason to take the in-laws to Acapulco next year, but the reality has little to do with white sand beaches and ocean spray.

In June, Mexico's El Universal newspaper reported that 95 per cent of the about 22,000 executions from December 2006 to April 2010 have not been investigated. While a study by the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego, said in May that between one and two per cent of rising "common" crime and crime linked to criminal gangs resulted in a sentence in 2008. That is of the estimated less than 25 per cent of crime that was actually reported, and takes into account those who give themselves up, the clear cut cases, and so on.

Tags: Mexico
By Rhodri Davies in Americas on July 30th, 2010
Photo by EPA

Argentina has been playing a double-headed role in attempting to resolve the latest dispute between Bogota and Caracas over Colombian rebels allegedly operating in Venezuela.

Both Nestor Kirchner, the former president and secretary general of regional grouping Unasur (the Union of South American Nations) and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the incumbent president and Nestor’s wife, held talks with Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s president-elect this week.

Nestor said that his meeting with Santos, who was in Buenos Aires as part of a regional tour, was "fruitful", while Cristina talked of "establishing dialogue".

Nestor has conducted a series of phone calls with Alvaro Uribe and Hugo Chavez, Colombia and Venezuela’s incumbent presidents respectively, and other Latin American leaders on the issue.

He is also chairing Unasur's meeting on Thursday in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, in a special session to try to ease tensions.

The two Kirc

By Rhodri Davies in Europe on July 12th, 2010
Photo by Rhodri Davies

The great thing about Spain winning the football World Cup is that the country has a lot of plazas.

This means that, for instance, here in Madrid, or equally in Barcelona, Seville or Granada, the city becomes a amusement park of football fans, in which you try one plaza out, see if it entertains you and then go to another.

Although unlike Disneyland there are no queues, the rides are free and you can scream, shout or even sing whenever you want.
 
Obviously tonight the capital has been fully awake all night.

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By Rhodri Davies in Europe on July 8th, 2010

Pamplona’s bulls are racing this week through the Spanish city’s streets during the famous fiesta of San Fermin.

In macabre scenes thousands of people run ahead of six bovines along an 850-metre course, attempting to avoid potentially deadly attacks.

By Rhodri Davies in Europe on July 7th, 2010
Photo by EPA

The summer sun is beating down on Madrilenos as they prepare to watch Wednesday's World Cup semi-final with Germany in Durban.

The largest crowd for tonight's game is expected outside Real Madrid's Bearnabeu stadium, where a giant screen has been erected.

Otherwise one of the capital's plentiful small bars is the place to see the game.

Locals are promising that if the Spaniards make it to their first World Cup final the streets will be full come night time.

As deliberations over who is to start the game continue to occupy fan's thoughts – with doubts over the fitness of Cesc Fabregas and misfiring Fernando Torres – interest is also being focused on Jose Luis Rodrieguez Zapatero, the prime minister of Spain.

Zapatero's close attention to the World Cup has led to him being labelled the new minister of sport and questions of whether he will start on the bench.

The prime minister of course is not the first politician to attempt to alig

By Rhodri Davies in Europe on July 6th, 2010
Photo by Rhodri Davies

Last weekend provided a spectacle of self-worth and confidence in Madrid with thousands of people crowding the centre of the city for its annual gay pride event.

Madrid’s festivities are heralded by locals - gay and straight alike - as the foremost such event in Europe, with attendance and la fiesta said to outshine those held concurrently in London and Vienna.

Demonstrators passed through the streets and parties were seen across neighbouring balconies.

Celebrations culminated on Saturday with Kylie Minogue, the doyenne of gay ambassadors, giving an open-air show in the Plaza Espana and providing credibility to the event's claims of pre-eminence.

But on the same night, Spain itself took a step towards being pulled from its own faltering self-regard.

'La Roja’s' 2-1 victory against Paraguay, in the quarter finals of football's World Cup, has given timely pride and ballast to a nation, where weeks ago there was little.

Before the World Cup,

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