>>The whole area is rather useless to me - by current count, there were just three articles (and I scrolled to about 80% of the list) which were not Microsoft related or originated. Microsoft, in my eyes, is not news.
>
>Uncheck "Enable latest news" in the first tab of your general settings, under the "Toolbar" section.

This hurt... had to read it all the way to the bottom :).

That's what you get when software is old enough. You introduce a feature, then some people don't like it, then you make it optional. Before you can say "wow 20 years down the drain already", your list of options is long as an arm.

Thanks - I got my answer sooner than I expected. On a weekend, at that.