The problem seems to be fixed (from my test) in Intrepid by installing the following two packages:
thunderbird 2.0.0.21+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
thunderbird-gnome-support 2.0.0.21+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
thunderbird-gnome-support, which was not installed with thunderbird, seems to solve the issue and show the icons. I recommend modifying the thunderbird package install script to have it detect if gnome is installed, and if yes then install thunderbird-gnome-support. This would avoid installing -gnome-support unnecessaryly if you only have KDE/kubuntu or some other environment.
The problem seems to be fixed (from my test) in Intrepid by installing the following two packages: nobinonly- 0ubuntu0. 8.10.1 gnome-support 2.0.0.21+ nobinonly- 0ubuntu0. 8.10.1
thunderbird 2.0.0.21+
thunderbird-
thunderbird- gnome-support, which was not installed with thunderbird, seems to solve the issue and show the icons. I recommend modifying the thunderbird package install script to have it detect if gnome is installed, and if yes then install thunderbird- gnome-support. This would avoid installing -gnome-support unnecessaryly if you only have KDE/kubuntu or some other environment.