Flamboyant singer David Lee Roth, 52, has returned to the fold for a 25-date North American arena trek that will kick off on September 27 in Charlotte, North Carolina. International dates and a new album are also in the planning stages.

Roth quit the band in 1985 for a disappointing solo career, and he spent the subsequent years sniping at his old bandmates and their replacement singer Sammy Hagar.

But as excited reporters cheered them on, the garrulous "Diamond Dave" embraced his old antagonist, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, during the gathering at the Four Seasons Hotel.

"My new brother," said Van Halen, also 52, as his 54-year-old brother, drummer Alex Van Halen looked on.

It is indeed a family affair, with Eddie's 16-year-old son, Wolfgang, replacing Michael Anthony on bass, to the chagrin of some fans hoping for a reunion of the classic lineup famed for such hits as "Runnin' With the Devil," "And the Cradle Will Rock" and "Panama."

Asked about Anthony's absence, Roth said: "This is not a reunion. This is a new band. ... Usually when a band comes back like us it's rockers with walkers, and this is everything but. Meet us in the future, not the past."

NEW ALBUM

Roth said Van Halen was "plotting and planning" a new album, his first with the band since 1983's blockbuster "1984."

"Saving the world is (U2 singer) Bono's job. We just want to save a hundred cities," Roth said. "Then we want to save Europe, then we want to save Japan, Australia and ... Hong Kong. Then we make an album. Lots of big dreams here, lots of ambition."

Added Eddie Van Halen: "We are a band and we're gonna continue."

The band has been on the rocks since 1996, when Hagar acrimoniously left. That year, Roth reunited with his old bandmates to record two songs for a hits album, and to present an award at the MTV Video Music Awards. He had assumed this would lead to a full-blown reunion, but later claimed he had been duped by Eddie Van Halen.

The band, instead, cast its lot with a new singer, Gary Cherone, the former vocalist with soft-rock band Extreme. His one album with the band, 1998's "Van Halen III" was a flop, and he left the following year.

The Van Halen soap opera entered a bizarre phase in 2002, when Roth and Hagar launched a co-headlining tour, despite Roth's description of his replacement as a "mediocre talent." Also that year, Eddie van Halen underwent cancer treatment, and the band was dropped by its longtime label, Warner Bros.

In 2004, Hagar and his old bandmates embarked on an unhappy reunion tour, with Anthony and Hagar claiming that Eddie Van Halen had alcohol problems. The guitarist, a recovering alcoholic, entered rehab earlier this year.

Observers are hoping for better things this time around.

"The real question is whether Eddie and Dave can peacefully co-exist," said Matt Blackett, associate editor at Guitar Player magazine. "For the sake of their die-hard fans let's hope so, because it was that pairing that created the band's most groundbreaking music. Eddie never played better than when he was with Dave.

Road construction put Detroit Pistons coach Flip Saunders on the 10th Avenue bridge Wednesday in Minneapolis.

The detour perhaps saved his life.

"I usually take the 35W bridge, but the ramp was closed," Saunders said Thursday from Minneapolis in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "My daughter was driving in a car right behind me when the bridge collapsed -- about 20 yards away from us. It sounded like a bomb when it dropped.

"I got out of my car and the first thing I heard was the kids screaming on the bus. I called 911. I didn't really know what else I could do," he said.

Saunders, a former Minnesota Timberwolves coach, was driving home after speaking at Tubby Smith's basketball camp at the University of Minnesota, where Saunders starred as a player.

"A day later, I'm still in a surreal state of mind," he said. "I can still see what happened. It's kind of like having flashbacks."

Divers checked submerged cars in the Mississippi River on Thursday for victims still trapped beneath the twisted steel and concrete slabs of a collapsed bridge.

"Our staff was in our office when we heard the news and we walked down to the bridge to see if there was anything we could do. ... We were told at the scene there was nothing we could help with and followed the authorities' request to clear the area," Smith said in a statement Thursday. "Obviously, our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. Our program, athletic department and university will do whatever we can to help our community recover from this disaster."

The eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge, a major Minneapolis artery, was in the midst of repairs when the bridge buckled during the evening rush hour Wednesday. Dozens of cars plummeted more than 60 feet into the river, some falling on top of one another. A school bus sat on the angled concrete.

The official death count stood at four Thursday morning, but Police Chief Tim Dolan said more bodies were in the water.

The Foo Fighters have apparently penned a song making fun of My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco et al for their upcoming 'Echoes, Silence, Patience And Grace' album.

The track in question is 'Cheer Up Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running)'. Frontman Dave Grohl told MTV:

"I have a funny relationship with emo. I'm from Washington D.C., and in the mid-'80s, the hardcore scene changed from what it was - Bad Brains and Minor Threat and the Dead Kennedys and MDC - to a bunch of new bands like Rites of Spring and Embrace. Everyone started labelling it 'emo-core'. I'd never heard anything like it, and it was a really emotional experience. But in D.C., we all hated that 'emo-core' tag."

'Echoes, Silence, Patience And Grace' will be released on September 24 through Sony BMG.