1. Vitor Abreu, owner of the U.S. geoscience research company Act-Geo, said Friday that a potential discovery of oil and gas reserves off South Korea's East Sea is "highly prospective," citing the presence of hydrocarbons in the offshore fields. The project has a presumed 20 percent success rate.

2. According to the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs on Thursday, an advisory body of UNESCO reportedly deferred the nomination of controversial Japanese mines on the island of Sado as a World Heritage site, asking for additional documents.

3. The European Central Bank on Thursday lowered its deposit rate by 0.25 percentage points to 3.75% from a record high of 4%, for the first time in almost five years, citing a sustained fall in inflation.