MILAN — A model who claimed she was kidnapped in Italy and held captive in a remote farmhouse was spotted shopping with her alleged captor during the time she said she was being held, according to court documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Chloe Ayling initially told Milan police she was held for six days, at times with her hands and feet cuffed to a dresser, until one of her kidnappers released her at the British Consulate in Milan on July 17.

But on the second day of questioning, detectives presented the 20-year-old with a statement from a saleswoman who said she sold shoes to the model and the main suspect in her abduction the day before Ayling turned up at the consulate.

In tears, the young woman told investigators she couldn’t give a “reasonable explanation” for why she had omitted the shopping trip, but said she considered the man who accompanied her the best chance of gaining freedom.

Police released a dramatic narrative about how the woman was allegedly lured to Milan with the promise of a modeling job, then drugged at a supposed photographer’s studio on July 11, zipped inside a canvas bag and transported to a farmhouse near Turin.

Milan police, citing Ayling’s description of the events, said her kidnappers also informed her she had been captured by a criminal group called “Black Death” and that she would be held for ransom or sold on the clandestine “dark web.”

The main suspect, Lukasz Pawel Herba, freed her at the British Consulate in Milan. He has been arrested on charges of kidnapping to extort money and falsifying documents, pending an indictment.

Police said they are looking for as many as four accomplices.

Dems seek details of payments by U.S. to Trump businesses

WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump spends much of August at his New Jersey golf club, Democratic lawmakers are making a new push for information about how much money the federal government is spending at his for-profit properties.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday asked Cabinet-level departments to hand over information about their Trump-related spending by Aug. 25.

Their request seeks documents about any payments the departments made to the Trump Organization or any business in which the Trump organization has an ownership stake.

Trump hasn’t shied away from his homes away from the White House. He has visited his own properties 48 times since his inauguration, including a dozen overnight stays, according to an Associated Press tally.

Trump campaign gives files to Senate panel in Russia probe

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, his son Donald Trump Jr. and former campaign manager Paul Manafort have started turning over documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the panel’s expanded investigation of Russian election-meddling.

The Trump campaign turned over about 20,000 pages of documents last Wednesday, committee spokesman George Hartmann said Tuesday. Manafort provided about 400 pages on Friday, including his foreign-advocacy filing, while Trump Jr. gave about 250 pages the same day, Hartmann said.

The Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, said last week that public hearings may be held in late September with Trump Jr. and Manafort.

Gazan travelers face new border restrictions from Israel

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — New Israeli restrictions on Palestinians exiting the blockaded Gaza Strip have further disrupted travel for the few who are allowed to cross the border into Israel.

The restrictions include a ban on laptop computers, hard-shell suitcases and even toothpaste.

Israel is citing unspecified security concerns as the reason for forcing engineers, businessmen and human rights workers to leave their electronic work tools behind. But for those affected, they regard the restrictions as unfair, inexplicable and the source of new headaches in the struggles of daily life in Gaza.

The ban, which took effect on Aug. 1, applies to all Palestinians who want to travel to Israel, or through Israel to the West Bank and neighboring Jordan.

S. Africa’s president survives no-confidence vote

JOHANNESBURG — President Jacob Zuma survived a no-confidence vote Tuesday in the seventh and most serious attempt to unseat him after months of growing anger in South Africa over alleged corruption and a sinking economy.

The latest vote to try to dislodge Zuma was the first held by secret ballot after parliamentary speaker Baleka Mbete, a longtime Zuma ally, made the surprise decision to allow it. Opposition parties hoped it would encourage African National Congress party legislators to vote against Zuma without fear of retaliation.

Zuma and his Cabinet would have had to resign if the motion had succeeded.

Of the 384 votes cast, 177 were in favor of the no-confidence motion and 198 were against, with nine abstentions.

The no-confidence motion needed 201 votes to succeed.

SW China is struck by strong quake; at least 7 dead

BEIJING — A strong earthquake shook a mountainous region in southwestern China on Tuesday evening, killing seven people, injuring 88 others, some seriously, and knocking out power and phone networks.

At least five of the dead were tourists, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said.

The magnitude-6.5 quake struck a region bordered by the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu at a depth of just 5.5 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage than deeper ones.

The China Earthquake Networks Center measured the temblor at magnitude-7.0 and said it struck at a depth of 12 miles. The quake occurred around 9:20 p.m. near Jiuzhai Valley, a national park known for spectacular waterfalls.

A federal judge who found the oppressive heat at Texas’ Wallace Pack Unit prison threatened the health of inmates agreed Tuesday to a plan to temporarily move the 1,037 prisoners to cooler lockups. State officials proposed housing most of the inmates in climate-controlled state prisons in Austin and Diboll.

Utah officials have confirmed the state is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for $1.9 billion in damages after the EPA inadvertently triggered a multistate spill from an old gold mine in Colorado. The Utah attorney general’s office said Tuesday the state filed the claim in February but never publicly announced it.