World briefs

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Authorities found five bullet-riddled vehicles with bloodstained seats on Wednesday, prompting a hunt for drug-gang killers who may have escaped after an outburst of border-region slayings and clashes with soldiers in which 21 people died, an official said.

The hours-long skirmishes around the town of Villa Ahumada on Tuesday were part of a wave of drug violence that has engulfed parts of Mexico — and has even spilled across the border — as the army confronts savage narcotics cartels that are flush with drug money and guns from the U.S.

President Felipe Calderon says more than 6,000 people died last year in drug-related violence.

NASSAU, Bahamas – A judge refused on Wednesday to lower the bail requirement for an ambulance driver accused of trying to extort $25 million from John Travolta after his son's death in the Bahamas.

Tarino Lightbourne, one of the paramedics who tried to revive 16-year-old Jett Travolta, has been held since Jan. 23 on charges of attempted extortion and conspiracy to extort money.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – A Cuban long-distance runner and track coach have disappeared in Uruguay and apparently intend to defect, officials said Wednesday.

Aguelmis Rojas and Rafael Diaz arrived in January on a sports exchange program in Maldonado, east of the capital, said Edgard Silveira, president of the local track federation. They dropped out of sight a day before they were to return to Cuba.

JERUSALEM – Inconclusive election results sent Israel into political limbo Wednesday with both Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hard-line leader Benjamin Netanyahu claiming victory and leaving the kingmaker role to a rising political hawk with an anti-Arab platform.

Livni's Kadima Party won 28 seats, just one more than Netanyahu's Likud, in Tuesday's election for the 120-member parliament, according to nearly complete results. Both held victory rallies, but without a clear majority neither can govern alone. Hard-line parties won a majority of the votes, meaning that Netanyahu has more natural allies and a better chance of forming a coalition.

The results could lead to weeks of coalition negotiations.

KABUL – Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked three Afghan government buildings Wednesday in a coordinated assault that killed 20 people in the heart of Kabul just ahead of a planned visit from the new U.S. envoy to the region.

The attacks in a city dense with barricades and armed guards underscored the difficulty of fending off the Taliban even with abundant troops and weaponry as the U.S. beefs up its presence.