How about a basic mail/usenet reader for K-M?

Not going to happen. There are already plenty of mail and usenet readers out there.

Well, how about at least a mail tab in the K-Meleon toolbar so that you can launch whatever mail/news reader you already have?

add this to your macros.cfg - replacing the path with the one to your favorite mail client, of course...

mailto {
exec("C:\Program Files\The Bat!\thebat.exe" "mailto:")
}
and this to the toolbar.cfg file:

write {
macros(mailto)
tool2.bmp[13]
tool1.bmp[13]
}

then you'll have a magic mail button... you can apply the concept to juat about anything else, too.