Couple of days ago this happened, of the eight read mail items listed in my in-box,
all but the oldest two mails changed to un-read. New e-mails are behaving as before, becoming read messages as per usual.

Why should this have happened? I get very little spam, btw.
Is it possible something/someone has messed around with KMail?
Is it a bug?

I can provide more info if anyone wants, it may take me a bit of time as my web access user is restricted, (and I'm trying to find work atm!!), but please help! I need my mail to be reliable because I really need to get back to work.

KMail 1.9.10 (KDE 3.5.10) on Gnome, various KDE apps installed
FC9 2.6.27.19-78.2.30.fc9.i686
Gnome 2.22.3

Behind NAT SPI router and Fedora Firewall both at "paranoid" settings
I've got the internet user under SEL context of user-u (I believe, no root priviledges)
FF 3.07 ext: NoSript 1.9.0.6; Add Block Plus
no AV

Any advice/comments please.
gtg bbl

update: new error

"Error while initializing the sound driver:
device:default can't be opened for playback (connection refused)"
~

I've posted over @ Fedora Forum
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=218017
there is more to the story, albeit probly not all of it relevant...