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BEITBRIDGE — President Robert Mugabe vowed Saturday that "there will never be regime change," as he celebrated his 84th birthday at a rally ahead of elections late next month.

The bash in the southern town of Beitbridge on the border with South Africa cost 3 trillion Zimbabwe dollars — the equivalent of about $250,000 at the dominant black market exchange rate.

Opponents blame Mugabe for an economic meltdown that has gripped Zimbabwe. The official rate of annual inflation rose to 100,580 percent in January — the highest in the world.

Mugabe lashed out at the country's "enemies," including the United States and Britain.

"There will never be regime change here. … Never," said Mugabe, who turned 84 Thursday.

RIYADH — A bus plunged over a cliff Saturday in southern Saudi Arabia, killing at least 25 people on board, the state-run news agency reported.

The official Saudi Press Agency said 25 people were killed and eight others were injured, citing police Col. Abdulla al-Qurni in the southern district of Assir, where the crash took place.

The bus drifted to the side of a mountain road, crashed through a guardrail and landed in a deep valley near the southwestern city of Abha, the Okaz newspaper reported.

STOCKHOLM — An over-night storm battered southern Sweden with hurricane-strength winds, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and causing flooding in the coastal city of Göteborg, officials said Saturday.

More than 80,000 households had power outages after the storm, which also caused major traffic disruptions. No serious injuries were reported

MERIDA — Investigators searched through the wreckage of a plane that slammed into an Andean mountainside with 46 aboard, working in freezing weather Saturday to find clues and recover victims' remains.

Sixteen specialists were dropped off by helicopter near the crash site on the foggy slope at 13,500 feet, said Gen. Ramon Vinas, head of the civil aviation authority.

Searchers recovered the cockpit voice and data recorders.

Officials said the victims, mostly Venezuelans, also included five Colombians and a U.S. citizen, Vivian Guarch, 53, who worked for a Miami branch of Stanford Bank.

The twin-engine plane shattered on impact and burst into flames Thursday. Searchers spotted the crash site by helicopter Friday.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Hundreds of federal police and military troops returned to an eastern Amazon town Saturday to remove a huge haul of illegally cut hardwood, Brazilian media reported.

Rioting townspeople and sawmill workers had forced federal environmental workers from the area days before, protesting a state crackdown on the illegal logging that threatens much of the world's largest rain forest.

But it was reported that Gen. Jorge Felix, head of Brazil's Institutional Security Ministry, ordered troops and helicopters to the town of Tailandia, where at least 2,000 enraged residents burned tires, blocked roads and forced environmental workers to flee.