diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index a933387e..b364d2f8 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -6,7 +6,11 @@
    - search for attachment MIME-type using 'mime:' or 'y:'
    - search for text in text-attachments using 'embed:' or 'e:'
    - searching for attachment file names now uses 'file:' (was: 'attach:')
-   - experimental emacs-based mail client
+   - experimental emacs-based mail client -- "mu4e"
+   - added more unit tests
+   - improved guile binding - no special binary is needed anymore, it's
+     installable are works with the normal guile system; code has been
+     substantially improved. still 'experimental'
 
 ** Release 0.9.7 <>
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 7171a5f0..4329b9e3 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 ## along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
 ## Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
 
-AC_INIT([mu],[0.9.8pre],[http://code.google.com/p/mu0/issues/list],[mu])
+AC_INIT([mu],[0.9.8-alpha],[http://code.google.com/p/mu0/issues/list],[mu])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/mu.cc])
 # libtoolize wants to put some stuff in here; if you have an old
@@ -30,8 +30,7 @@ m4_ifdef([AM_SILENT_RULES], [AM_SILENT_RULES([yes])])
 AM_PROG_LIBTOOL
 #LT_INIT([disable-shared])
 
-AS_IF([test x$prefix = xNONE],[
-   prefix=/usr/local])
+AS_IF([test x$prefix = xNONE],[prefix=/usr/local])
 AC_SUBST(prefix)
 
 AC_PROG_CC
@@ -259,7 +258,7 @@ AC_CHECK_PROG(have_makeinfo, makeinfo, yes, no)
 AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_MAKEINFO, test "$have_makeinfo" = yes)
 ###############################################################################
 
-       
+
 
 
 ###############################################################################
diff --git a/emacs/TODO b/emacs/TODO
index f111271d..b423b654 100644
--- a/emacs/TODO
+++ b/emacs/TODO
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 *** forward should take the attachments from the original
 *** database locks
 *** mu4e-get-sub-maildirs
+*** handler not registered when compose without headers
 
 ** Features i
 
diff --git a/src/mu-query.h b/src/mu-query.h
index 6360081d..fc64b6e3 100644
--- a/src/mu-query.h
+++ b/src/mu-query.h
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ char* mu_query_version (MuQuery *store)
  * manpage, or http://xapian.org/docs/queryparser.html
  *
  * @param self a valid MuQuery instance
- * @param expr the search expression or "" to match all messages
+ * @param expr the search expression; use "" to match all messages
  * @param threads calculate message-threads
  * @param sortfield the field id to sort by or MU_MSG_FIELD_ID_NONE if
  * sorting is not desired