From La Jornada, Jan. 10 via Chiapas95 (our translation):

Hundreds of inhabitants of the Sierra de Chiapas blocked trucks and machinery transporting wood from the zone, and initiated a protest vigil in front of the municipal presidency in Motozintla in protest of the timber companies which are exploiting the resouces without any plan for forest recovery.

From El Universal, Jan. 10 via Chiapas95:

Soaring tortilla prices have touched off a budding crisis, threatening the traditional affordability of the nation's most politically sensitive food product.

A little more than a year ago, it was a mysterious sweet smell that mystified New Yorkers. This time a mysterious sinister smell. A psychological warfare experiment? From Reuters, Jan. 10:

A powerful, mysterious smell of gas wafted through much of Manhattan and parts of New Jersey on Monday, forcing building evacuations and a temporary suspension of commuter train service before dissipating by mid-afternoon.

From the Middle East Newsline, Jan. 8:

Morocco has reported another crackdown on Al Qaida. Officials said security forces have arrested Al Qaida operatives suspected of recruiting Muslims for the Sunni insurgency war in Iraq. They said the Al Qaida network contained scores, if not hundreds, of people, and operated in several major cities in the North African kingdom.

Another sign of Nigeria's social breakdown—and similar tensions are reported from Ghana. From Xinhua, Jan. 9:

Six persons were killed at the weekend in a bloody clash between herdsmen and farmers in Korenganuwa village in Nigeria's northwestern state of Zamfara, the official News Agency of Nigeria reported on Monday.

More than a thousand peasants and fishermen marched in Campeche, in the Yucatan peninsula, Jan. 6 to protest the degradation of their lands and waters by the state oil company Pemex. Participants included members of the National Campesino Confederation, the Supreme Maya Council, the Council of Campesino Organizations, and other member groups of Campeche's newly-formed Frente Estatal de Organizaciones Campesinas y Pesqueras (State Front of Peasant and Fisherman Organizations). In its first statement, issued the day of the march, the State Front denounced the rural development policies of President Felipe Calderon and demanded restitution for damaged lands and waters. (La Jornada, Jan. 7 via Chiapas95)

Since the beginning of the year we've been keeping track of ghastly acts of (non-Muslim) terrorism from around the world which the media have largely played down or completely ignored. The latest entry is from India's restive Northeast. From BBC News, Jan. 7:

Suspected separatist rebels have carried out more attacks on Hindi-speaking migrants in a third day of violence in India's Assam state.

From Catholic Information Service for Africa via AllAfrica, Jan. 5:

A message purportedly from the deputy leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network has appeared on the internet, urging the Union of Islamic Courts fighters in Somalia to launch suicide attacks against Ethiopian troops.