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George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin are rumored to be engaged

It appears George Clooney really is serious about married life: He's already resigned from his most time-consuming humanitarian role.

The BBC reports that the two-time Oscar-winner is ending his role as a United Nations "Messenger of Peace" following six years of unpaid service.

Clooney's resignation from his UN duties comes two days after the surprising news of his engagement to British lawyer Amal Alamuddin. No date has been set for the wedding.

Since assuming the Messenger of Peace position in 2008, Clooney has steadfastly worked to raise awareness of conflicts in troubled countries like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, Clooney "feels it is time to retire his official role."

Other celebrities who have taken on Messenger of Peace duties include actors Michael Douglas and Charlize Theron and musicians Stevie Wonder and Lang Lang.

And nobody can ever say Clooney didn't throw himself into the UN role over the past several years. Most notably, the actor has campaigned tirelessly about the Darfur crisis and ongoing violence in South Sudan, which gained its independence in 2011.

To date, more than two-million people have been displaced by the conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, since civil war commenced in 2003. The situation is no less dire in South Sudan, which descended into violence last December, roughly two years after it became the world's newest nation.

In 2008, Clooney teamed with fellow actors Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle, along with film producer Jerry Weintraub and human-rights advocate David Pressman, to form the Not On Our Watch Project, a humanitarian aid organization designed to "bring global attention to international crises and give voice to their victims."

Clooney also maintains a close connection with campaign group Enough Project and helped co-found the Satellite Sentinel Project, which employs spy satellites to document human-rights abuses and atrocities in Sudan.duja

And with all that on the go, Clooney simply couldn't continue in his high-profile Messenger of Peace role.

"The competing demands on their time from their professional and advocacy lives sometimes make it difficult for high-profile individuals to carry out a formal United Nations role," said Dujarric.

Of course it's worth noting that Clooney's fiancee is a top-ranked lawyer whose specialty is international law, human rights, extradition and criminal law.

Besides representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his legal battles against extradition to Sweden, Ms. Alamuddin also routinely advises governments on points of international law and serves as an adviser on Syria to United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan.

Nobody's saying Clooney and Alamuddin could solve all the world's problems once husband and wife, but don't be surprised if they take their best shot.

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