The head of the Spanish region devastated by the country's deadliest floods in decades admitted to "mistakes" and apologised on Friday but rebuffed calls for his resignation. Outrage at the authorities for their perceived mismanagement before and after the floods has coursed through Spain, piling particular pressure on the Valencia region's conservative leader Carlos Mazon. "I'm not going to deny mistakes" or "shirk any responsibility", Mazon told Valencia's regional parliament on Friday in a monologue lasting around two hours. - Recriminations -In Spain's decentralised state, regional governments lead disaster response, but the authorities in Madrid can supply resources and take charge of the management in extreme cases. Critics have questioned the efficiency of the Valencia region's alert system, which in some cases only reached residents' telephones when floodwater was already gushing through towns.
