I've compacted the news folder but on a regular basis OE hangs after the
above keypress on the current news folder. I can leave it 1/2 hour and
it'll still be there hogging CPU resources and getting nowhere. If I close
down the application, and re-open, the selected messages have been marked as
read and all seems to be well.

It's a new installation of WinXP SP2, with SP3 installed as well.

Any ideas?