The controversial billionaire says his fifth marriage will be his last.

Rupert Murdoch with his fifth wife to be Ann Lesley SmithCREDIT: Jenna Bascom Photography

Ms Smith, who was previously married to country music singer and TV executive Chester Smith, described the engagement as a “gift from God”.

She said: “I’m a widow 14 years. Like Rupert, my husband was a businessman. Worked for local papers, developed radio and TV stations and helped promote Univision.

“So I speak Rupert’s language. We share the same beliefs.”

Mr Murdoch proposed in New York on St Patrick’s Day, joking that he is “one-fourth Irish”.  The billionaire told the New York Post he personally selected an Asscher cut diamond for the engagement ring.

The wedding is scheduled to take place this summer. The couple will divide their time between the UK, California, New York and Montana.

Mr Murdoch’s six-year marriage to former supermodel Jerry Hall ended last year. Ms Hall was reportedly handed the keys to an £11m Oxfordshire mansion and a home in the south of France, as well as a cash sum, as part of the divorce settlement.

Mr Murdoch’s marriage to Jerry Hall ended in a divorced that was finalised soon before me met his new partner CREDIT: Max Mumby/Pool/Indigo/Getty Images

The businessman’s first marriage to Patricia Booker, an Australian flight attendant, lasted nine years.

In 1967 he married Anna Torv, a Glasgow-born journalist, and the pair remained together for 32 years. She received a reported $1.7bn payout following their divorce in 1999.

Mr Murdoch’s marriage to Anna Torv, his longest, ended in 1999, it was swiftly followed by another wedding CREDIT: Bettmann

He then married Wendi Deng, who is 37 years his junior, on his yacht just 17 days later. That marriage lasted 14 years until their divorce in 2013.

Mr Murdoch’s marriage to Wendi Deng lasted 14 years CREDIT: Bob Riha, Jr./Getty

The tycoon has six children from his previous marriages, including daughter Elisabeth – a top TV executive – and sons James and Lachlan.

He is now preparing to hand over control of his media empire to chosen heir Lachlan, who is executive chairman of Fox Corporation and co-chairman of News Corp.

However, Mr Murdoch’s children retain interests in the business and there is a speculation that there could be a battle for control, sparking comparisons to hit TV series Succession.

In January, the patriarch was forced to call off a planned merger between Fox and News Corp – a deal widely seen as a way of consolidating power under Lachlan – following fierce opposition from shareholders.

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A man, who killed his neighbor, cut her heart out and then stabbed two people to death, including a 4-year-old child, has been sentenced to life in prison in US’s Oklahoma state.

According to NBC News, 44-year-old Lawrence Paul Anderson committed the murders in 2021, less than a month after he received an early release from prison.

Weeks after he was freed, he murdered and carved Andrea Blankenship’s heart, carried it to his aunt and uncle’s house and cooked the organ with potatoes.

He then attempted to serve the meal to the couple before he stabbed and killed 67-year-old Leon Pye and his 4-year-old granddaughter Kaeos Yates, He also stabbed his aunt .

Lawrence Paul Anderson pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of first-degree murder and a single count each of assault with a deadly weapon and felony maiming, according to The Associated Press. Anderson was sentenced to life in prison without parole as part of a plea deal.

The International Criminal Court said Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

It was the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

The ICC said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow — and welcomed by Ukraine as a major breakthrough.

Its practical implications, however, could be limited as the chances of Putin facing trial at the ICC are highly unlikely because Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction or extradite its nationals.

But the moral condemnation will likely stain the Russian leader for the rest of his life — and in the more immediate future whenever he seeks to attend an international summit in a nation bound to arrest him.

“So Putin might go to China, Syria, Iran, his … few allies, but he just won’t travel to the rest of the world and won’t travel to ICC member states who he believes would … arrest him,” said Adil Ahmad Haque, an expert in international law and armed conflict at Rutgers University.

Others agreed. “Vladimir Putin will forever be marked as a pariah globally. He has lost all his political credibility around the world. Any world leader who stands by him will be shamed as well,” David Crane, a former international prosecutor, told The Associated Press.

The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation. The AP reported on her involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian orphans in October, in the first investigation to follow the process all the way to Russia, relying on dozens of interviews and documents.

ICC President Piotr Hofmanski said in a video statement that while the ICC’s judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The court has no police force of its own to do so.

The ICC can impose a maximum sentence of life imprisonment “when justified by the extreme gravity of the crime,” according to its founding treaty, the Rome Statute, that established it as a permanent court of last resort to prosecute political leaders and other key perpetrators of the world’s worst atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Still, the chances of Putin or Lvova-Belova facing trial remain extremely remote, as Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction — a position it vehemently reaffirmed Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia doesn’t recognize the ICC and considers its decisions “legally void.” He called the court’s move “outrageous and unacceptable.”

Peskov refused to comment when asked if Putin would avoid making trips to countries where he could be arrested on the ICC’s warrant.

Ukraine’s human rights chief, Dmytro Lubinets, has said that based on data from the country’s National Information Bureau, 16,226 children were deported. Ukraine has managed to bring back 308 children.

Lvova-Belova, who was also implicated in the warrants, reacted with dripping sarcasm. “It is great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in war zones, that we take them out, we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people,” she said.

Ukrainian officials were jubilant at the move.

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a “historic decision, from which historic responsibility will begin.”

Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, recalled that on the night of Russia’s invasion, “I said at the Security Council meeting that there is no purgatory for war criminals, they go straight to hell. Today, I would like to say that those of them who will remain alive after the military defeat of Russia will have to make a stop in The Hague on their way to hell.”

In Washington, President Joe Biden called the ICC’s decision “justified,” telling reporters as he left the White House for his Delaware home that Putin “clearly committed war crimes.” While the US does not recognize the court either, Biden said it “makes a very strong point” to call out the Russian leader’s actions in ordering the invasion.

Olga Lopatkina, a Ukrainian mother who struggled for months to reclaim her foster children who were deported to an institution run by Russian loyalists, welcomed news of the arrest warrant. “Everyone must be punished for their crimes,” she said in a message exchange with the AP.

While Ukraine is also not a member of the global court, it has granted it jurisdiction over its territory and ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has visited four times since opening an investigation a year ago.

Besides Russia and Ukraine, the United States and China are not members of the 123-member ICC.

The ICC said its pre-trial chamber found “reasonable grounds” that Putin “bears individual criminal responsibility” for the child abductions “for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others” and for failing to “exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts.”

During a visit this month, ICC prosecutor Khan said he went to a care home for children 2 kilometers (just over a mile) from front lines in southern Ukraine.

“The drawings pinned on the wall … spoke to a context of love and support that was once there,” he said in a statement. “But this home was empty, a result of alleged deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation or their unlawful transfer to other parts of the temporarily occupied territories.”

“As I noted to the United Nations Security Council last September, these alleged acts are being investigated by my office as a priority. Children cannot be treated as the spoils of war,” Khan said.

And while Russia rejected the allegations and warrants, others said the ICC action will have an important impact.

“The ICC has made Putin a wanted man and taken its first step to end the impunity that has emboldened perpetrators in Russia’s war against Ukraine for far too long,” said Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “The warrants send a clear message that giving orders to commit, or tolerating, serious crimes against civilians may lead to a prison cell in The Hague.”

Crane, who indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor 20 years ago for crimes in Sierra Leone, said dictators and tyrants around the world “are now on notice that those who commit international crimes will be held accountable.”

Taylor was eventually detained and put on trial at a special court in the Netherlands. He was convicted and sentenced to 50 years’ imprisonment.

On Thursday, a U.N.-backed inquiry cited Russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine, including systematic torture and killing in occupied regions, among potential issues that amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.

The sweeping investigation also found crimes committed against Ukrainians on Russian territory, including deported Ukrainian children who were prevented from reuniting with their families, a “filtration” system aimed at singling out Ukrainians for detention, and torture and inhumane detention conditions.

On Friday, the ICC put the face of Putin on the child abduction allegations.

Source: abcnews.go.com