kmail & konqueror vs. firefox ? [on UBUNTU]

Hi,

When I click on a link in kmail it opens in konqueror no matter what my 
system settings [in UBUNTU] request.  Konqueror has a problem on my 
system and is unstable.  I want kmail links to open in Firefox, but I 
cannot find a setting that will perform that, other than copy and paste.  
Any pointers for me?

Q. 2  Can I configure kmail to exhibit some indicator (e.g., system bar at 
top) to indicate new mail received from last reading?  kmail does almost 
provide that by exhibiting the number of (unread) messages, but then 
you have to keep track of the previous number in order to ascertain if 
there's an new message.

Q.3  It's easy to find new messages in the inbox, but if a filter has 
stashed it somewhere else is there some alert to tell me to look in other 
boxes?

thanks,
norman
[email protected]