Lately I've noticed that while I'm doing other things on my Windows 8 PC, the Windows 8 News app will pop up an alert in the upper-right corner now and then about a news story.
How do I turn that off?
Open the PC Settings menu by hovering/touching in the lower right hand corner or pressing Windows Key + C and selecting the Settings charm, followed by selecting Change PC Settings from the very bottom of the menu.
Then select Notifications from the PC Settings menu. Scroll down the Show notifications from these apps list until you find the News application and slide the selection switch to Off.