Former Catalan leader urges Spain to accept secessionist election win

Catalonia's former leader Carles Puigdemont on Saturday urged Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to accept the results of a Dec. 21 local election which gave a slim majority to parties favoring a split of the northeastern region from Spain. The election failed to resolve Spain's biggest political crisis in decades with pro-independence parties taking 70 of 135 seats in the Catalan parliament but not managing to gain a majority of the popular vote.