NEWS and other lost bits from 1.8

[Chris Shoemaker]

The fact that there's a up-to-date NEWS file sitting in the 1.8 branch
while the one in trunk is out-of-date got me curious.  I don't know of
any easy automated way to check what else is in 1.8 that should be in
trunk but I did find a few odd bits that seem like they might belong.

Is there any reason not to pull changes made in 11508, 9696, and 9794
from 1.8 into trunk and also the NEWS file?

-chris