marching on. a day of dem on strayings here and around the world as tens of thousands take to the streets, at least one protest turns violent. bank backlash. outrage over all the new fees and how you can avoid them. to the rescue, tonight a dangerous mission to aid an ailing american woman stuck on the south pole. and making a difference. how one woman inspired so many others in the fight against cancer. tonight the making of an angel.

up good evening. the chorus of protests over big money and hard times reverberated around the world today as tens of thousands took to the streets from across the u.s. to europe and all the way to johannesburg, railing against banks, corporate profits and the wealthy. but it was in rome that things turned violent, cars set afire and banks fire bombed. this was born of the non-violent occupy wall street movement that started here in new york. but it has easily found traction in parts of the world where folks are already simmering under the collar from harsh economic austerity measures. collectively their anger is clear. their specific demands less. so but nonetheless they've got the world's attention. nbc's kyra simmons leads off our coverage from london tonight. >> reporter: this was the day

protests on wall street went worldwide. and in places turned violence. in rome, some protestors interrupted a peaceful demonstration to smash bank windows and set fires. there were running battles with water cannons and tear gas. reports say 20 were injured. protestors and police. after 100,000 have been expected for a demonstration inspired by events in america and fuelled by anger at government cuts. in london, protesters were prevented from getting close to the stock exchange. there were five arrests. the day was largely peaceful. >> some are having money and living good lives, some not having money and suffering because of it. >> people have lost their jobs. >> reporter: there are several thousand protestors here in london. part of a movement beginning in the united states, now spreading around the world. 5,000 gathered in germany near

the european central bank, the same slogans adopted in the u.s. seen today in germany. and in tehran, and in australia. messages that have gone global, spread through the internet. >> human need and human rights not corporate greed. >> reporter: in hong kong they lay on the sidewalk. in paris, poland and portugal, small groups demonstrated. but in spain, organizers estimated that 300,000 took to the streets of madrid, large numbers already furious over high unemployment there. tonight, some streets in the italian capital resemble a battlefield. burned out vehicles include a police van. the prime minister calls for arrests. the protestors calling for change around the world. kire simmons, nbc news, london back here in new york where all this began around two dozen people were arrested as protestors ventured from their

wall street area encampment into the heart of times square. as this now month-old movement takes on an increasingly political tone over tax policies. nbc's reporter was there this evening. this locks like one of the biggest gatherings we've seen yet. >> reporter: absolutely, lester. it feels like new year's eve here in times square. massive crowds have gathered for what is undoubtedly the occupy wall street movement's largest event yet. today they occupied times square. hundreds of occupy wall street protestors gathered at the crossroads of the world for what organizers dubbed a party. earlier, more than 1,000 demonstrated in washington square park. and hundreds marched all over new york city, in continued protests against big banks and what they say is an unfair economic system. >> kids can't work out of college. they have huge debts. healthcare is non-existent for

most people. libraries are closing. it's a bad time. >> this is people from all walks of life knowing that they have to fight for their country now or we're going to lose it. >> reporter: groups gathered as part of a local day of protests. in atlanta, 200 ramalliey ralli at the capital. pittsburgh streets were closed to accommodate large crowds. hundreds marched through downtown phoenix. and in rural alaska one woman posted a facebook photo of her solo protest with the caption" find your spot, occupy the it". organizers say the nationwide events showed just how far the movement has come in less than a month. >> what we're doing here is affecting the whole world. and that is really powerful. >> reporter: a new poll show 54% of americans view the occupy wall street protests favorably. a majority agree with their key

issue, 73% favor raising taxes on those earning more than $1 million a year. >> they have been successful as raising the issues of economic inequality and a broken political system to the national political establishment. >> reporter: now, despite the large crowds all around the country, experts note that movement's real influence won't become clear until the election. >> thanks. there was a big rally in washington as well today, at least partly inspired by occupy wall street. thousands gathered near the washington monument for what was called the march on washington for jobs and justice. it was aimed at building support for president obama's jobs plan, and was led by the reverend al sharpton who we should note also hosts a program on msnbc. as the presidential campaign heats up, today was the deadline for the candidates to report on their fundraising for the last three months. beyond their messages, the race for money will largely determine

how far the candidates can go. nbc's mike viquera reports. >> reporter: they say money isn't everything. but in politics it can be. >> we raised about $2.8 million. >> reporter: that's why new gop frontrunner herman cain went to tennessee. >> we're going to have a million dollar -- >> reporter: in the first big di disclosure day, cain's numbers are coming up front. rick perry reports he took in about $17 million and has $15 million in cash on hand. behind is mitt romney, he raised over 14 million with about the same amount in the nk. then ron paul who raised 8.2. after that a big dropoff to cain's 2.8. the totals are one important sign of a campaign's health and staying power. experts say the surging cain, who lacks the big organization and has refused to even name key

advisors, must raise his money game as the first primaries approach. >> for him to be able to compete for a long period of time, he's going to have to raise a considerable amount more money to be able to fund an organization and to be able to fund those later tv ads. >> reporter: with the democratic field all to himself, president obama's take dwarfs the gop contenders raking in 42 million for his campaign over the past three months. with more than 61 million in his war chest, experts say in the end it will be the costliest campaign ever. >> one of the advantage es the president has is the ability to raise money. i don't know if he'll get to 1 billion but he'll have plenty of money to spend to fight the republican nominated against him. >> reporter: one other gop contender michele bachmann divulged her numbers. about a million ahead of herman cain. one other aspect of this, lester, this year the so-called superpac skrkz, president obama has one. many times they don't have to

disclose their donors. some people expect them to match the candidates dollar for dollar in their spending. it adds a whole new dimension to this presidential race as well with a lot more money. lester? >> mike, thanks. as you heard, her man cain raised far less money than some of his opponents. but those numbers were tallied before his reasonable surge in the national polls which has brought him a new level of scrutiny especially over his 999 tax plan. tonight nbc's national investigative koerz correspondent michael isakoff takes a look. >> reporter: herman cain wants to dump the tax code and replace it with a simple formula. by slashing personal and corporate income taxes to 9% and adding a 9% federal sales tax, cain says his plan will expand the economy by $2 trillion, create 6 million jobs. but critics see more pain, not gain for struggling families.

a family of four with an income of $50,000 could face a tax hike of more than $5,000, says one tax analyst. >> anybody who works for a living and has an income below six figures a year is going to find him or herself very sorry that they live in the 999 tax environment. >> reporter: rich lowrie is an investment advisor and free market enthusiast who developed cain's economic plan. >> i just asked him how bold do you want to be. and with his signature smile and that big booming bass voice he just kind of leaned in and said, bold. >> reporter: bold under 999 means scrapping all personal exemptions and deductions for childcare, tuition, and interest on home mortgages. and the national sales tax? 9% on top of state and local taxes, and no exemptions for food and medicine. cain's 999 plan would eliminate all taxes on capital gains from the sale of stocks and bonds.

lowrie says to free up money for new investment. >> risk taking drives growth. you have to allow risk taking to happen. >> reporter: nobody disputes that 999 plan would radically change current policy. but while cain says it will recharge the economy, his critics say there's no guarantee of that, and that his proposal would unfairly shift the tax burden away from the wealthy and onto working class americans. michael isakoff, nbc news, washington tonight a story playing out at the bottom of the world. pilots on the south pole are waiting for the weather to improve so they can finally evacuate an ailing american woman. the manager of a research station has been waiting for weeks for a ride out. nbc's george luewis has the latest. >> reporter: rene nicole douceur suffered a stroke weeks ago. she was elated a flight might be on the way. >> i am excited in my tiredness

and feeling a little rush now. so i'm ready to go. >> reporter: but because of treacherous weather at the south pole this time of year, today's flight to evacuate douceur had to be postpone. >> along the coast we have winds in excess of 35 miles per hour steady. chances of snow likely into tonight and the next several days. >> reporter: airlifting personnel from the south pole has always been risky. jerry nielson fitzgerald a physician who discovered she had breast cancer and had only limited ways of treating herself was rescued in october 1999. douceur contends that after she suffered her stroke she should have been rescued earlier. these says it's been done before in extreme weather conditions. two weeks after he was diagnosed with pancreatis a man was airlifted out of the south pole in april 2001. >> it was minus 77 degrees when they arrived. there was no moon or anything. so it was pitch black.

and they flew in and brought me off. >> reporter: the national science foundation, the agency that runs the research station, says such rescues are done only if the victims are in a life-threatening situation. as a stroke victim, douceur says her life is at risk. >> i have no idea if i'm just walking around with a ticking bomb in my brain or not. >> reporter: as she waits for that first flight out, george lewis, nbc news, los angeles. there is late word tonight about u.s. troops in iraq. the associate press reports that u.s. is abandoning plans to keep troops in that country past a deadline for their withdrawal at the end of this year. this would effectually end more than the eight years of involvement in that war. however the pentagon tonight said a final decision has not been made and discussions are continuing up next here on nbc nightly news, with those annoying bank fees on the rise, how consumers can keep costs down

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♪call 1-800-steemer. for americans, watching their bottom line yet another thing to worry about. perhaps you have gotten one of those letters from the bank announcing new fees on debit cards and checking accounts. so what can you do? we asked nbc's john yang to take a look. >> reporter: as retirees on a pension, jerry and doris royce

watch their pennies, so they were angry when their bank told them about a new $15 a month maintenance fee, more than the interest they were earning. what did they do with the letter? >> that's it. goodbye. >> reporter: account closed. a result of the rising cost of keeping your money in a bank. according to bankrate.com, last year 65% of non-interest checking accounts were free. now, fewer than half are. over the same period, maintenance fees shot up 85% to more than $52 a year. and the minimum balance required to avoid those fees more than doubled to $585. >> consumers quite honestly have had enough. they are nickelling and diming consumers to death. >> reporter: bankers blame congress and new regulations that cap their fees on credit cards, debit cards and overdrafts. >> we're going to start losing money on checking accounts. and so therefore we had to raise revenue. and unfortunately this time on the customer in order to have that product for customers.

>> reporter: there are alternatives. analysts say that online banks, small regional or community banks and credit unions sometimes offer higher rates on deposit, lower rates on loans, and lower or even no fees at all. but there can be drawbacks like limited atm networks and fewer or no local branches. then there's the pain of uprooting your financial life. >> honestly people say leaving a bank is like getting a divorce. so much paperwork, so much hassle involved. >> reporter: the royces moved money to a credit union. was it worth the trouble? >> i think so. >> also the principle of the whole thing. >> yes. >> reporter: a conclusion more and more people may soon be reaching. john yang, nbc news, new york. >> when we continue here tonight, new clues and new questions about a notorious serial killer.

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notorious mass killers of his time. and those of a certain age will remember john wayne gacy, the chicago murderer who brought fear to that city more than three decades ago. now after so many years new twists have emerge as we hear from nbc's stel any gosk. >> reporter: the police arrested john wayne gacy in his chicago home on september 21st, 1978. for months afterwards the bodies kept coming out. >> he said he had 30 bodies buried in his crawl space but nobody really believed him. >> reporter: 33 in total. young men between the ages of 14

and 22 brought into his home, sexually assaulted and murdered. gacy who sometimes worked as a volunteer clown was convicted and eventually executed by lethal injection. but a mystery remained. eight unidentified victims. now more than 30 years later, with modern technology at his disposal, chicago sheriff tom dart wants to know who they were. >> now through dna, families that had no hope of having a match now have the absolute hope. we can be definitive in saying this is or is not your loved one. >> reporter: so the police dug up the eight sets of remains and sent them to this lab at the university of north texas for dna analysis. to find possible matches, police have opened a hotline and are asking families like the bodians for dna samples. 22-year-old edward went missing in 1978. >> it's been 33 long years not knowing what happened to my brother. i would like to know one way or

another. >> reporter: investigators believe most if not all eight victims will be identified, but they uncovered new leads in this dusty chicago evidence room. while looking through the boxes, investigators also found plane tickets to at least ten different states during the same time he was murdering young men here in chicago. they thought to themself, if he was murdering them here, what are the chances he wasn't committing the same crimes while he was on the road. at the time there were no computers or missing people databases, tools investigators have now used to possibly link gacy to 27 unsolved cases around the country. >> we're running out some of these leads right now. and we are just finding some intriguing patterns. >> reporter: technology can now answer decades-old questions about one of the most monstrous crimes in u.s. history. and chillingly, it may be raising some new ones. stephanie gosk, nbc news, chicago. there is more to come here tonight. there is something about an angel and how it's making a

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finally tonight, on the wings of angels, the sorry of how one maryland woman found inspiration from above to help lift the spirits and hopes of those battling cancer, both the patients and those fighting on their behalf. nbc's anne thompson has our making a difference report tonight. >> reporter: what makes an angel? a halo? wings? jennifer nyland has a different

answer. >> what's an angel to you? >> oh. bobbie burnett. honestly. truly. >> reporter: 29-year-old ago, bobbie burnett made a stained glass angel for jennifer's mom suzie to help her battle cancer. >> i thought that was all i was ever going to make. but now, after 40,000 more, i don't feel that it was my choice. i was selected to do it. >> reporter: today the basement of bobbie's indianapolis maryland home is an angel factory. >> you can cut those and she's going to do the body. >> reporter: four days a week, 90 volunteers cut, solder and assemble what bobbie calls the caressing collection. >> not everyone who has cancer goes into remission. but everyone has hope and concern or care. they need love and they need trip. >> reporter: her angels watch over cancer patients around the world. >> to england and to ireland and to spain. >> reporter: the nearly $1 million raised is helping johns

hopkins cancer center buy this machine for patients undergoing radiation and lab equipment for scientists looking for course. >> it's more than just the funds that they raise. our researchers are quite literally inspired by these people. >> reporter: ten years ago, bobbie's husband jerry wanted her to retire. then he got cancer. bobbie made squerry an angel. >> what she's doing is absolutely wonderful. >> reporter: the personal touch of volunteers is why bobbie won't mass produce the angels. >> each time they touch that angel they're passing on their love and hope for the people who need it. >> reporter: jennifer's mom suzie died from cancer but her spirit didn't. >> who would have thought this one angel, this one gesture of love and support and inspiration for her has turned into this amazing charity. >> reporter: a halo, wings and heart. that's what makes an angel. anne thompson, nbc news, indianapolis, maryland.

>> and that's nbc nightly news for this saturday. i'm lester holt reporting from new york. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today" then right back here tomorrow evening. good night, everyone.