While in IE I click on Internet Options. I try to make
http://news.google.com my home page. However, when I click on the IE
shortcut on my desktop I cannot get Google news. I have noticed that
the URL of my home page is somehow changed to http://:news.google.com.
Notice the extra colon in the URL. Do I have an anti-Google virus on
my computer?

If this is a virus, it is the lamest virus ever. Does this only happen
with news.google.com? Have you double checked that your homepage has
the correct URL listed? You can check by right clicking on your IE
shortcut and then going to properties. Internet Properties should open
and it will be at the top.

Or you could just upgrade to Mozilla Firefox at
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Yes, I have checked the URL many times, and tried all sorts of things
to change the URL by adding the colon after the //

Yes, it only happens with Google.

The mystery continues.

In the unlikely event that there is something blocking that as a
homepage, you can use http://216.239.39.104/news instead.  That will
take you to Google News.