Radek Mezulanik

Show the number of pending posts waiting for approval in the admin menu, if any. Also automatically supports custom post types. Sends email notification of posts pending review.

Zedna pending post indicator and notifier

Display number of posts waiting for approval in administration. Send an email about waiting approval, approved/rejected post.

szucsadam

I have found a very annoying problem on the admin panel.
Where the comments are listed, unapproved comments had lightyellow color (HEX:FFFFE0). 
It is hard to make difference between unapproved and approved comments with this color.
This plugin changes the background-color to orange [#DD823B] (from WordPress 3.8 Sunrise admin color-scheme), and the author’s name and his comment to white. This makes the comment approving system easier to see on all monitor types.

Pending Comments Highlighter

This plugin overrides the default pending comments background color in WordPress admin.

Zedna pending post indicator and notifier vs Pending Comments Highlighter