It's late at night, and you want to learn the latest news about a war going on across the globe, or to discover any news of a major hurricane that's headed in your direction.

Visit the Internet, where you'll find the most recent news and weather reports from around the world.

One of the most impressive sources for up-to-the-minute news is MSNBC. You can get a local weather report, including a four-day forecast, as well as news on health, world events, technology, sports, and even the local news. Enter your stock symbols to learn what your stock is doing in the market, or discover the latest scores from your favorite sports teams. http://www.msnbc.com/news

Another excellent source for news is CNN Interactive, where the news is broken down into categories such as World, U.S., Sports, Business, Weather, and Politics. What can you do when an airline goes on strike? What are the latest fashions for the coming season? Learn all of this and more at CNN Interactive. http://www.cnn.com/

Do you enjoy hearing news that, though it is true, is nothing but strange? At Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird, you'll learn newsworthy (but weird) items such as the Copenhagen Zoo adding an exhibit to its primate collection, amid the baboons and chimpanzees: a Homo sapiens couple. http://www.newsoftheweird.com/

As with everything they do, Yahoo! offers a superb news site. Not only can you learn the latest news on subjects such as technology, human interest, entertainment, and top stories, but you can also read the news in other languages. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/

At Intellicast, you'll find weather reports from around the world; golf, sailing, and ski reports; and even a health section that discusses allergies in season, air pollution, and ailments that can be aggravated by weather conditions. Under world news, you'll find satellite images, radar images, precipitation images, high and low temperature maps, and much more. http://www.intellicast.com/

For up-to-date information on hurricanes, visit the Hurricane Weather Center. Use their survival guide to prepare for a hurricane, where you'll find a grocery list, a survival kit, how to prepare your home for a hurricane, and more. Learn the current position of the tropical storms, view their location on a map, and track their path. Read the latest National Weather Service advisories, or learn how storms are named. Did you know that some names have been retired, because storms by those names inflicted heavy damage? Examples are Betsy, Camille, Frederick, and Andrew. http://hurricane.weathercenter.com/

Robin Nobles is a freelance writer who can be reached at smslady@netdoor.com.