Basic Help

Hi,
I’m really new to Word Press and am just in the process of setting up my site and would like to know a few things.
By Default the front page is called Blog and in my current them there is a Tab at the top that says Blog to go to it, is there a way to change this so it says ‘News’ and also by default there were some menus along the side I dont want such as Blogroll, how do I get rid of these? and is there a way to make a page without creating a Tab at the top and just a link on the sidebar instead?
Im pretty sure all these things can be done because I’ve seen wordpress sites where it has been done.
Thanks in advance.
PS: Can i also get rid of the XFN and WP links?