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Tom Petty: I'm not retiring

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Looks like Tom Petty won't back down after all.

The veteran rocker says he's not retiring, despite a Rolling Stone article in July that suggested otherwise.

Petty said 2006 was one of the most rewarding years in his career, and he expects the ride to continue in 2007.

"You never know how things are going to turn out, and I didn't see this year coming," Petty told the Los Angeles Times for a story published Sunday. "But maybe next year will be even better."

Petty and his band, the Heartbreakers, recently earned two Grammy nominations for their latest album, "Highway Companion."

Their 30th anniversary tour was a sellout and included a triumphant homecoming to Gainesville, Florida, where the band formed in the 1970s. Petty was offered the key to the city.

The Heartbreakers also are the subject of a documentary due out in 2007 from Oscar-nominated director Peter Bogdanovich. Bogdanovich calls Petty "an American troubadour in the truest sense of the word."

Petty is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His many hits include "I Won't Back Down, "Even the Losers," "Breakdown," "American Girl," "Free Fallin' " and "The Waiting."

Aishwarya Rai is in trouble

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai is in trouble again.

One of Rai's bodyguards is accused of desecrating a temple in the Hindu holy town of Pushkar by entering drunk and roughing up worshippers who tried to approach the actress, media reports said Friday.

"We are contemplating action against the star as she is responsible for her guards," Ladoo Ram, the head of the local priests association told the Hindustan Times newspaper. Ram said the priests would discuss filing charges with the police.

Alcohol and meat are banned from Pushkar, a Hindu pilgrimage center surrounding a small lake in the desert of Rajasthan state in northwest India and home to the only temple to the Hindu god Brahma.

Rai denied her guard was drunk, the paper reported. The Times of India quoted police as saying that Rai's guards were only trying to keep a crush of fans and reporters away from her.

Officials in Pushkar could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

Oprah wanted to do more than write checks

NEW YORK (AP) -- Frustrated with just donating money to charities, Oprah Winfrey says she built a school for poor girls in South Africa because she wanted to feel closer to the people she was trying to help.

"I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write check after check," she told Newsweek magazine. "At a certain point, you want to feel that connection."

Winfrey spent five years and $40 million to build the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls outside Johannesburg.

The school for 12- and 13-year-old girls has 28 buildings on 22 lush acres. The school includes huge fireplaces in every building, a yoga studio, indoor and outdoor theaters and a beauty salon. People criticized her, saying the school is too lavish for such an impoverished country.

"These girls deserve to be surrounded by beauty, and beauty does inspire," she told the magazine. "I wanted this to be a place of honor for them because these girls have never been treated with kindness. They've never been told they are pretty or have wonderful dimples. I wanted to hear those things as a child."

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Today's Buzz stories

Tom Petty: I'm not retiring

Aishwarya Rai is in trouble

Oprah wanted to do more than write checks

Get up-to-the minute news from CNN