thoroughfares in caracas toward the capital downtown where most national government buildings are located. at one point they were stopped by the national guard. opposition lawmaker described the moment to cnn saying tear gas bombs started raining on us. former presidential candidate was told friday he can no longer do any political activity. said the show of force was unnecessary. translator: this is refregs, this is a crime. they re committing crimes and violating human rights by stepping on the rights of people. the government has staged a self coup and what they are doing to me is part of it. reporter: this is the fifth consecutive day of protests. demonstrators are also protesting the supreme court which issued a ruling stripping the parliament of legislative power and giving to itself. the court reversed its decision after widespread condemnation and three days of protests.
developing stories including more on russia. a poll showing over half of americans say they do want an independent inquiry of the links between trump and russia. more than 60% say this is concerning for what it actually means for our democracy. couple that with the former national security adviser, mike flynn, offering testimony in exchange for immunity. now, today. vladimir putin spokesman claiming there is actually nothing to uncover. are you concerned about anything he might say about his contacts with russia? no. we are not. any blamings that russia could have been interfering in domestic affairs of the united states is slander. peskov saying that an allegation regarding the russian government s involvement in the recent killing of an opposition lawmaker is absurd. how will these events affect the already rocky path ahead for the trump administration?
american reportedly among 11 medical students in syria working in an isis controlled hospital. an official insists they went there to help isis and may have been brain washed to switching sides as more than westerners are joining isis. reporter: alisyn sheer what we know. this is coming from a turkish member of parliament and opposition law maker. he says a group of 11 seven brik british nationals, one american, two sued feezdanese they came from sedan, three others were in their final year of law school. he says they crossed into syria, into isis controlled territory. now, we cannot independently verify their whereabouts right now or the motivations behind their travels to syria.
those waters, nic, but in terms of talking about renovations, we just dot news in from will ripley, our colleague on the ground, saying an south korean opposition lawmaker who represents jindo says renovations last year expanded the top floor of the ferry to make room for 117 more passengers, this at the same time, though, that authorities are saying it doesn t appear the ship was overloaded. do we know anything more about that? any of these renovations? reporter: what we know from the coast guard is, and they re obviously looking at whether or not the ship was overloaded they ve taken a look at the manifest, and on the face of it, the manifest shows that by weight, the ship wasn t overloaded. it had a few more cars than it was permitted to take, but it had less of the big trucks that it was permitted to take and it had less shipping containers, albeit a large number, still, than it was permitted to take. when you add that up, and the
theories of what could have triggered this disaster. too little ballast water and too much cargo puts the ship in danger, says this man, a senior researcher with japan s national institute of fisheries engineering. using weights to simulate shipping containers, he shows how unsecured cargo can shift to one side with catastrophic consequences. translator: the result is the ship capsizing. the worst-case scenario. reporter: a south korean opposition lawmaker who represents jindo says renovations last year expanded the top floor to make room for 117 more passengers, making the center of gravity higher. south korean prosecutors could not confirm those details when asked by cnn, but we do know they re investigating the inspection agency that signed off on the work. investigators want to know if modifications made the ferry more likely to capsize. authorities here in south korea say figures from the company and the coast guard don t show the