Followup: This seems to be related to the emacs24 shipped with Ubuntu 13.04 because emacs23 on the same install is not affected. (Emacs23 23.4+1-4ubuntu1) > Ubuntu 13.04 > Emacs 24.2+1-2ubuntu2 > Mew 1:6.4-3 > > When starting mew in emacs, it hangs emacs with "Updating status ..." > for ever. Harald.