Oil prices surged after an attack on Saudi Arabia's largest oil processing plant halted output of more than 5.7 million barrels of crude a day. But after an initial spike, crude oil prices moderated as traders analyzed the likely longer-term implications. By late morning in Asia on Monday, U.S. crude oil was up $4.89 per barrel, or 8.9%, to $59.73 per barrel early Monday in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, surged $6.02 per barrel, or 10%, to $66.25 per barrel.

Earlier, U.S. crude jumped more than 15% and Brent leaped nearly 20%. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack on the Saudi Aramco facility that paralyzed production of more than half of Saudi Arabia's global daily exports and more than 5% of the world's daily crude oil production.

Boris Johnson was booed by protesters and berated by Luxembourg's leader on a visit to the tiny nation for his first face-to-face talks with the European Union chief about securing an elusive Brexit deal. On a day of commotion and conflicting signals, Johnson pulled out of a news conference because of noisy anti-Brexit demonstrators, leaving Luxembourg's prime minister standing alone next to an empty lectern as he addressed the media.

Still, Johnson insisted there was a strong possibility of securing a divorce agreement before Britain is due to leave the 28-nation bloc in just over six weeks. The European Commission said the meeting between Johnson and its chief Jean-Claude Juncker ended with no breakthrough in the impasse over how Britain can leave the EU with a plan in place to manage the divorce.

Italy allowed the Ocean Viking, a Norwegian-flagged charity rescue ship, to sail to a tiny southern island so that 82 migrants aboard could be transferred to shore, but the country's foreign minister cautioned against interpreting the move as a sign its new government is easing a crackdown on humanitarian vessels. Premier Giuseppe Conte's week-old coalition now contains the center-left Democrats, whose leaders have called for a more humane policy on the rescue boats.

The previous government, under a rigid anti-migrant policy led by right-wing leader Matteo Salvini, banned charity rescue boats from entering Italy's waters and disembarking migrants on Italy's shores. Salvini pledged this week to tens of thousands of die-hard backers of his populist League that he will return to power stronger than before, as he seeks to rebound from a grave political miscalculation that pushed his party from government.

More than half of 147 tigers confiscated from a Thai temple in 2016 have died, officials said, blaming genetic problems linked to inbreeding at the once money-spinning Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in the western province of Kanchanaburi. Tourists could be photographed - for a fee - next to scores of tigers.

But in 2016 park officials began a lengthy operation to remove the big cats amid allegations of mismanagement and claims the creatures were being exploited. Dozens of dead cubs were found in freezers, sparking claims the carcasses were being sold by a temple rumoured to have raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds a year from visitors. The surviving adults were taken to two breeding stations in nearby Ratchaburi province but only 61 of the 147 have survived so far, parks officials said.