Milan Dinić

This plugin automatically disables WordPress Events and News widget from the dashboard. By removing, you also prevent all external requests widgets makes so that it can work.
It is a very lightweight, it has no settings, just activate it and it works immediately.
And it’s on <a href="https://github.com/dimadin/disable-wordpress-events-and-news-dashboard-widget" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a>.

Disable WordPress Events and News Dashboard Widget

Disable WordPress Events and News widget from the dashboard.

Ricardo Gonzalez

WordPress 2.5 introduces a widgetized dashboard featuring the latest posts and WordPress news.
This plugin creates a new widget for that dashboard that lists out the latest posts.
See Also: <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/dashboard-widget-manager/" rel="ugc">Dashboard Widget Manager</a>

Dashboard: Recent Posts Extended

Widget for the WordPress 2.7+ dashboard to display the latest posts.

Disable WordPress Events and News Dashboard Widget vs Dashboard: Recent Posts Extended