" * GNOME menus and buttons have been standardised across all applications to not display icons by default. Menu items with dynamic objects, including applications, files or bookmarks, and devices are the exception and can display an icon. This change will standardise the look and feel of menus and present a cleaner interface to users."
This is a new intended change in gnome 2.28, you can enable it again by running gconf-editor and changing these two keys to true.
/desktop/ gnome/interface /buttons_ have_icons gnome/interface /menus_ have_icons
/desktop/
More info on the change:
" * GNOME menus and buttons have been standardised across all applications to not display icons by default. Menu items with dynamic objects, including applications, files or bookmarks, and devices are the exception and can display an icon. This change will standardise the look and feel of menus and present a cleaner interface to users."
http:// library. gnome.org/ misc/release- notes/2. 28/