PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - March 17

March 17 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

- McDonald's Corp said it was notified by Twitter Inc that its account was compromised, after a message about President Donald Trump was posted from the burger chain's corporate Twitter account. http://on.wsj.com/2ntFdJA

- France's financial crimes investigator has begun a preliminary probe into alleged wrongdoing at Airbus Group SE , the company said, amid widening accusations facing the European plane maker over potential corruption. http://on.wsj.com/2ntMnxh

- Executives at Viacom Inc and its Paramount Pictures studio are working overtime to keep their $1 billion co-financing deal with two Chinese firms on course. Viacom Chief Financial Officer Wade Davis is in China meeting with the companies, Shanghai Film Group Corp and Huahua Media, according to people familiar with the matter. http://on.wsj.com/2ntFDQ5

- Officials at Caterpillar Inc, which has faced scrutiny from federal investigators, said it has hired former U.S. Attorney General William Barr to help assess matters related to government raids on its facilities earlier this month. http://on.wsj.com/2ntKJvF

- Exxon Mobil Corp called accusations that it withheld documents relating to climate change from the New York attorney general an attempt to discredit the energy company, but disclosed a newly discovered technical issue that could mean it will soon release more of its former chairman's emails. http://on.wsj.com/2ntKfW6

- Marathon Pharmaceuticals LLC has struck a deal to sell its muscular-dystrophy treatment to PTC Therapeutics Inc, one month after Marathon's $89,000 price tag for the drug spurred an outcry from patient advocates and federal lawmakers. http://on.wsj.com/2ntLu7M

- 3M Co is buying a personal-safety unit from Johnson Controls Inc for about $2 billion, the companies said. http://on.wsj.com/2ntLwNe

- U.S. authorities said Russian intelligence officers backed of the massive 2014 hack against Yahoo Inc, but the hacker at the center of the allegations is a 29-year-old who has eluded Western law-enforcement agencies for several years. http://on.wsj.com/2ntFWKJ (Compiled by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru)