on the broadcast tonight, stopped again. this time it's paychecks held hostage by a congress that cannot or will not resolve its differences. tonight, why they can't get a payroll tax deal done. whiteout. a big blizzard blankets the heartland. travel's a mess. what's in store for the holidays and where? to the streets, women who have had enough abuse, staging a dramatic protest in egypt. contagion, a deadly virus. a version of bird flu made in a lab. a scientist explains why he created it, while some fear it could fall into the wrong hands. and "making a difference" for children halfway around the world. one woman's simple idea that took off beyond her wildest dreams. and what's happened since we first brought you her remarkable

story. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. while tonight people are on the move and mall parking lots are full amid the stress of every day life in the week leading up to christmas, the nation's representatives are fighting, and are again deadlocked between parties and within parties. while it's important legislation on payroll taxes and unemployment benefits that will affect working americans. it's the business of washington, and it's the fight that is coming through loud and clear. the closer you get to the capitol, the louder it becomes. it's a full-on deadlock. it's where we begin tonight with nbc's kelly o'donnell. so, kelly, not only is it a genuine deadlock, there are genuine differences here dividing them? >> reporter: deep policy divisions. and really, the question tonight, brian, is who will blink first? that's actually where we are.

democrats say having done a short term fix would have eased anxieties, especially through the holidays. but republicans say doing something short term is not a real solution. tonight congress is dug in even deeper over your money. >> what is happening here today is shameful. it's a disgrace. it is unreal, it is unbelievable. we can do better. >> reporter: up against a january 1st deadline, democrats fought hard to get house republicans to go along with a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. a sentiment most house democrats accepted but house republicans rejected it, even demanded the senate return to washington to negotiate a full one-year extension.

>> why don't we just do it now, and give the american people a real christmas present? >> reporter: today speaker boehner wrote the president asking him to step in and call senate democrats back. instead, the president walked into the briefing room with a take it or leave it message. >> let's not play brinksmanship. the american people are weary of it, they're tired of it. they expect better. >> reporter: the president and the house speaker called each other out. >> i need the speaker and house republicans to do the same, put politics aside -- >> i need the president to help out. all right? >> reporter: surrounded by dozens of his members to show solidarity, boehner says there is enough time to forge a one-year deal. >> all we need now is to resolve our differences. a two-month extension is nothing more than kicking the can down the road. >> reporter: but 160 million working americans will have to wait, not knowing if they will have to pay higher taxes in just 11 days. >> i think it's a breakdown just because congress itself is broken down. it's gotten to the point where it's just partisan bickering. >> it's the people that put our

government into power. and they seem to have forgotten that. >> reporter: but tonight we wait. senate democrats say they will not come back to washington. some house republicans say they are staying here in town, to make the political point they're still working at it. and the president's trip to join his family in hawaii is a question mark. now, congress could try again, but, brian, will they? >> and it goes on on capitol hill. kelly o'donnell starting us off. kelly, thanks. and so with frustration with congress reaching all time highs, another organization is bracing for some blowback. the national association of realtors. they are the ones who report home sales numbers that so many rely on as a gauge of our economy. and they are about to revise those numbers down. it appears housing sales starting back in 2007 may be even worse than we realized as in the numbers may have been off by 20%.

diana olick covers the industry for cnbc. she's with us tonight from our washington bureau. diana, what does all of this really mean? >> reporter: well, brian, it means the housing crash was worse than we thought. even though we knew it was already unprecedented. that headline will have a direct effect on already weak consumer confidence, which is just what the housing market does not need today. remember, this is a backward looking revision. we have to think of that. so it doesn't change the market today. it doesn't change the fact that there are 6.2 million borrowers behind on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure. that over a third of today's home sales are bank-owned homes. and it doesn't change home prices. now, that is really crucial. but again, there will be headlines, and that could spook buyers and sellers alike, which is really the big negative here. because we were just beginning to see some movement from some of those potential buyers sitting on the fence. brian? >> diana olick in our washington newsroom. diana, as always, thanks.

we turn to the weather front, the snow is moving out and away from the plains. after leaving some lasting effects, really, from the first big blizzard of the season. dashing through the snow, mike seidel was able to mike it as far as garden city, kansas. mike, good evening. >> reporter: hey, brian, it was a storm that impacted and virtually shut down parts of five states, and stranded thousands at the beginning of a busy holiday travel week. it was the first blizzard of the season, bearing down on the southwest and high plains states just days before the official start of winter. in northern new mexico overnight, snow and icy road conditions made for treacherous travel. four people were killed when their vehicle collided with a pickup truck in blizzard like conditions. and in colorado, where 50 mile an hour wind gusts created ten foot drifts, still more traffic accidents, including this prison van which lost control, killing a guard and an inmate. in the texas panhandle, amarillo

had rain and snow. a welcome weather event for the drought stricken state. and kansas saw as much as 14 inches of snow, and four foot drifts. >> we had several of our own vehicles that ended up in the ditch. >> the storm dumped as much as 20 inches of snow in a december that's featured a snow drought for many. >> with christmas just around the corner, it's welcome news for travelers that some highways and major interstates have now reopened, and people are digging out. and this weekend, not many of you will be digging out. check out the saturday forecast map for christmas eve. a few snow showers over the rockies, but it will be rain from the gulf coast into the carolinas, impacting atlanta's hartsfield-jackson, the world's busiest airport. could be some holiday flight delays. right now we're looking at snow in the interior, and rain for the big cities. brian, i want to tell you, we're going with the european model here. the american model has nothing. they'll duke it out for the rest of the week. stay tuned to the weather channel as we finetune that christmas day forecast for you.

brian? >> all righty, we will. could be a little something for millions of americans, mike seidel in garden city, kansas tonight. mike, thanks, as always. overseas now, to the power shift in north korea, the window it has opened into that repressive and isolated nation. and questions tonight about why the u.s. didn't know more, didn't know sooner about the death of kim jong-il. our chief foreign correspondent andrea mitchell is in our washington newsroom tonight with more on that. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. north korea's mastery of political theater was on full display today, as the kim dynasty tried to convey continuity. even as critics question, as you say, why the u.s. didn't know kim jong-il was dead for two days. the sobbing began on cue, broadcast on state tv with the announcement of kim jong-il's death. no one does public mourning better than north korea. a glass coffin for the man known to his people as dear leader.

bathed in light, floating on the flowers named after him. paying his respects, his untested son and heir, kim jong-un. in a choreographed show of grief, this as masses of weeping people, battalions of organized mourners appear as u.s. officials say, on command. an emotional outpouring that reminds some of a cult. >> it has both elements of a cult and elements of a mafia. you have to think of the two of those together. mafia with the personality cult behind it. >> reporter: the well-fed political elite of pyongyangpyo their standard of living is inconceivable to the starving millions outside the capital. this satellite image taken just six years ago, illustrates the stark contrast. south korea thriving, brightly lit. north korea in mere total darkness. its isolation makes it a

difficult target for u.s. intelligence, which picked up no warning that kim was dead. how is that possible? >> you have a government that's fairly compartmentalized. and fairly paranoid about its governance. given all of those things, it is a very difficult place to collect accurate and analyze information. >> reporter: in 2007, u.s. intelligence didn't know north korea was building a nuclear reactor in syria, until israel showed the white house pictures and bombed it. two years later, the north built a sprawling nuclear plant undetected. the danger now, not knowing what the new leadership will do. >> he'll need to show something. he needs to show a very skeptical public that he's in charge. and one of the time honored ways that's done in north korea is what we would definitely consider a provocation. >> reporter: tonight, senior u.s. officials defend the work of the cia saying, the key point is not marking the exact moment the dictator dies, but having a solid framework to assess what might come next. that, of course, is the next test. brian? >> andrea mitchell on the period of uncertainty that arrived this weekend on the news. andrea, thanks. meanwhile, in syria, where most journalists are banned from covering what's going on there,

new amateur video has surfaced claiming to show some of this week's bloody clashes between protesters and government forces. in damascus and elsewhere, more than 150 people are reported dead in the last two days alone. arab league monitors are going into syria later this week, hoping to help end this nine-month-old crackdown, that's so far reportedly cost about 4,000 lives. but the pictures coming out of there show just how tough a task that might be. and in egypt, where five straight days of clashes between the military and pro-democracy demonstrators in tahrir square have now left 14 people dead, today it was women who took to the streets by the thousands in downtown cairo, incensed by an attack on one of their own. and the difficult to watch images of that attack that were beamed around the world. nbc's ayman mohyeldin reports from cairo. >> reporter: it was the largest women's protest anyone here has ever seen.

thousands of egyptian women marched across tahrir square, calling on their countrymen to join them. and demand an end to the use of women demonstrators. this is what has sparked their anger. recent attacks against women protesters captured on video. one woman seen beaten senseless by egyptian soldiers, her limp and exposed body dragged away. a man and woman walking by are then dragged into the violence, they too are viciously beaten. the shocking images quickly spread around the world triggering international outrage and condemnation. >> women are being beaten and humiliated in the same streets where they risked their lives for the revolution only a few short months ago. >> the images were also broadcast on egyptian state television, helping unite political forces against the ruling generals. >> the targeting of women have angered many across the society. and today organized protests to

send a very clear message to the military rulers, that abuse of women at the hands of the security forces will no longer be accepted. is this 28-year-old woman was shielding another woman, when soldiers assaulted her. she said, they stomped on my face with their boots and clubbed me on my head. then they took me to a holding area where seven other women and threatened to rape me. the women's protest is part of a new uprising here, pushing the military to give up power. the military is pushing back, showing footage of what it said were thugs attacking soldiers, insisting the soldiers were acting with restraint and in self-defense. but in the same video, military personnel can be seen firing at demonstrators at close range. when egypt's upraising began about ten months ago. demonstrators trusted the military to protect the revolution. for many, that trust is now gone. now facing mounting domestic and

international pressures, the military issued a rare apology this evening saying respected women and their right to protest. and they have a very important role to play in egypt's transition to democracy. all this coming with increasing calls for a million man march on friday by egypt's ruling political parties. >> it's tough to watch, but at least the whole world is watching what's happening there again. thanks. still ahead as our broadcast continues on a tuesday. a new virus that could be a serious killer, created by scientists who are now being asked to keep their discovery in the lab and out of the hands of terrorists. and later, new dresses for little girls. one woman's idea that's making a difference and spreading fast around the world. what's happening in the year since we first aired her story.

we mentioned this earlier, and we're back now with an update. scientists have created the most dangerous virus possible.

and now a government panel is telling them not to share the details of it with the rest of the world. our report from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. >> reporter: dr. ron fouchier told nbc news today why he created the new killer virus. i wanted to see what was possible, he said. what he learned was to take bird flu, h 5 n 1 which seldom affects people, and make it highly contagious in ferrets, a model for human transmission. few people would have immunity, and it would kill 60% of those it affected, creating a horrible pandemic. >> it's the most dangerous flu virus that's ever been created in the world. >> reporter: that's why a panel that advises the u.s. government today took the unprecedented step of asking two major journals, science and nature, to remove part of fouchier's paper,

and sinl similar research from the university of wisconsin, taking out critical details, so they can't fall into the hands of terrorists. >> i wish the work hadn't been done to begin with, but now that we're here, it makes the most sense. >> reporter: the u.s. funded the research to learn what changes needed for a pandemic. they did not consider how the research would be published. they say this is a lesson learned. >> we'll be taking a closer look at what would happen if scenario a or scenario b came about. >> the journal's plan to publish the redacted versions in the next few months. this is one of those extremely rare instances where scientific research, usually open to all, meets concerns about terrorism. robert bazell, nbc news, new york. still ahead here tonight. do you know anybody who goes really big at the holidays? in ft. lauderdale, they call it their neighbors.

a lot of discovering of new planets going on lately.

they just discovered one a few days back, and now they found two more. and again, it's a good news/bad news situation. the new ones are kepler 20-e and kepler 20-f. and while the names may need a little work, both planets are close to earth's size. the bummer here is the temperature. daytime highs averaging 800 and 1,400 degrees. but it's a dry 800 and 1,400 degrees. while it would take any known spacecraft millions of years to get there, it's still nice to know they're out there. if you were watching monday night football last night, you saw it, the night the lights went out in san francisco. candlestick went dark, not once but twice, while the steelers and 49ers waited. the power company was scrambling to fix the problem which apparently started when a transformer blew. the emergency lighting worked, and the fans took it in stride. that was the transformer blowing. it didn't hurt that the home team won last night. it's amazing, the hyatt family's neighbors in ft.

lauderdale have enough power to run a blender. the house is famous for its light show at this time every year, known locally as the hyatt extreme christmas. they say it's so bright, santa can even use it as a navigation marker while flying at high altitudes in his sleigh. up next here tonight making a big difference one dress at a time.

all this week here we've been doing follow-up reports on how people have reacted and stepped up after our "making a difference stories" have aired. like the story last year around this time about a woman in a detroit suburb who had an ambitious idea to help kids a half a world away. we sent nbc's chris jansing to malawi, who found the idea is making an even bigger difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of little girls. >> reporter: for these two sisters, life has always been heartbreakingly hard. like almost all their friends in this impoverished village in malawi, these thread-bare

dresses are the only things they own. and yet when rachel o'neil arrived, there's joyous singing and dancing. a celebratory welcome for their new friends from america. it was here in malawi five years ago, that o'neil fell in love with the sweeping beauty of the countryside, but especially with the children. >> when i'm here, i realize that every single one is different, and every single child matters. >> reporter: yet she also realized they had no way of knowing that life could be better. so she made a plan. >> i'd like to see if a woman's group would like to begin to sew little dresses to bring back next year when i come. >> reporter: and so they did. first in her church group and then word spread. and people from all 50 states sent in so many dresses, it took teams of people to iron, sort and pack them all. >> it kind of makes me want to cry.

that's how i feel. i really do feel connected to these women. >> reporter: and that was just the beginning. >> in the year since our story aired, 400,000 dresses have been donated, bringing the total to half a million. it's hard to imagine how many hours went into making each and every one of those dresses by hand. now, every year, rachel returns to bring not just clothing, but hope. >> there's a real personal touch to it. and they really do make a difference. each child feels special. >> reporter: at first they seem puzzled. they've never been given anything in their lives. but then when they realize, this belongs to me, their smiles are warmer than the african sun. >> all of it comes down to putting that dress on that little girl, and seeing her eyes light up. >> reporter: little dresses with a message, you matter. and someone very far away made this dress just for you with love. chris jansing, nbc news, malawi. >> how about that?

and tomorrow night, another follow-up report on someone making a difference for people and their very best friends who love them unconditionally. that's tomorrow night here on nightly news. for us, for now, that's our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. and, as always, we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening, good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com now businesses and families are worried about the dangers posed by rats. packs of them who arrived