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International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says he remains worried about Syria s civil war after meeting President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict.Brahimi said Monday he exchanged views with Assad on possible solutions, but the Algerian diplomat did not elaborate or describe any signs of progress. Syrian state news agency SANA quoted the president as saying he supports any peace effort that protects Syria s sovereignty and independence.Brahimi arrived in Damascus Sunday, on his third visit since taking the post of U.N.-Arab League envoy in September. Since then, fighting between government and rebel forces has escalated nationwide, including around the Damascus airport. The lack of security at the facility forced Brahimi to travel to the Syrian capital by car from neighboring Lebanon. Free Syria Army fighters fire as they fight with Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, December 24, 2012. Free Syria Army fighters fire as they fight with Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, December 24, 2012. This image from video obtained from the Shaam News Network shows Syrians helping a wounded man after a government airstrike in Halfaya, outside Hama, Syria, December 23, 2012. This image from video obtained from the Shaam News Network shows Syrians removing the bodies of those killed after a government airstrike in Halfaya, outside Hama, Syria, December 23, 2012. A Free Syrian Army fighter in Aleppo, Syria, December 22, 2012.

December 21, 2012 11:31 AM Text Kids' story, acted out by adults, about "Catching Santa" By Topics (CBS News) "Kid Snippets" is a charmingly simple concept: what would a movie written by and for children look like? Adorable and slightly nonsensical, if the video above is anything to go on. The folks at get in the holiday spirit with this short "movie" about a young girl (played by an adult man, because... why not?) who has a stand off with Old Saint Nick in a video called "Catching Santa."The entire plot is straight out of the mind of a young child. Why is Santa stealing presents? Why is that little girl up so late at night? Can anyone really name all of Santa's reindeer?All these questions are beside the point. The idea of a little girl grilling Santa is too good to pass up. And we're suckers for the adorable awkward rhythms of children having a conversation. 0 Add A Comment + Add a comment Subscribe to this comment thread by email The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. By using this Web site you agree to accept our . Click here to read the . Comment reply Subscribe to this comment thread by email The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. By using this Web site you agree to accept our . Click here to read the . Report offensive content: If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the CBSNews.com , you can report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once reported, our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed. Select type of offense: Offensive: Sexually explicit or offensive language Spam: Advertisements, commercial links, or repetitive posts Disruptive posting: Flaming or offending other users Illegal activities: Promote cracked software, or other illegal content Off-topic: Commentary unrelated to the storyline Comments (optional): E-mail this comment to a friend. E-mail this to: Your e-mail address: Send me a copy of this message Note: Your e-mail address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the e-mail and in case of transmission error. Neither your address nor the recipients's address will be used for any other purpose. Add your own personal message: (Optional)

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The demand for food crops is growing, but experts say the world s harvests are not keeping pace. A new pinpoints exactly where crop yields are falling behind. The authors describe it as actionable intelligence on where more investment is needed to help secure the world s food supply.The United Nations says there will be 2 billion more people to feed by 2050. And people are becoming richer and eating more meat, which takes more grain to produce; and demand for plant-derived biofuels is growing.But while the need for food crops in increasing, the new study found productivity has flattened out or declined on 43 percent of the world s rice-growing land, and 44 percent of its wheat fields. Where are we heading? x​​That raises a serious question, according to lead author Deepak Ray at the University of Minnesota. If huge tracts of rice and wheat areas are not improving, he asks, then where are we actually heading in terms of reaching that target of feeding 9 billion humans? ​Overall, Ray says, the new study found yields were stagnant or fell on about a quarter to two-fifths of the world s farmland growing rice, wheat, corn or soybeans. Those four crops account for about two-thirds of the world s caloric consumption.x​​​Other studies have warned that crop yield increases are not keeping up with demand. But Ray says they have been too vague to act on. When you say, for instance, wheat yields are not increasing anymore in India, it doesn t really say much. It doesn t say where it is not increasing. County by countySo Ray s team pored over decades of official figures and detailed statistics, to figure out what is happening in each county, for example in the United States, or in each municipio in Brazil or in each district in India... It takes a long, long time, obviously. It took three years, in fact. But in the end, the group produced detailed maps that can be used to zero in on where yields are increasing and where they are not.But Ray says this is really just the beginning. This data set can be used to answer many other questions like, Where are we going from here? What we have only shown is where we are right now. Next, Ray says, researchers need to figure out why yields are not improving in these areas and what needs to change. Good news Kostas Stamoulis, director of the Agricultural Development Economics Division at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, says the study identifies areas where improvements would have a substantial impact. There is significant untapped potential to increase yields to accommodate future demand, he says. This is good news. Let s put it that way. And Stamoulis says in many cases tapping that potential is a matter of applying what is already known. The technologies exist, he says. We have to provide farmers with market access, infrastructure, risk management practices that will incentivize them to use those technologies. And as the demand for food crops grows, Stamoulis says the time to invest in farmers is now.