Thursday newspaper round-up: Pace, Petrobas, IG Group

LONDON (ShareCast) - Set-top box maker Pace (Other OTC: PCMXF - news) has agreed to a £1.4bn takeover by sector peer Arris, reports The Times. The company will hold its annual general meeting on Thursday, at which it will present the recommended deal to shareholders. Brazilian oil group Petrobas , under investigation for a corruption scandal, has written off $17bn due to losses from "graft and overvalued assets", writes The Wall Street Journal. The online trading system of spread-betting outfit IG Group (Other OTC: IGGHY - news) crashed on Tuesday, "provoking fury among thousands of traders who were unable to place bets over the internet for several hours", The Times reports.

Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) new chairman John McFarlane is expected to "quickly stamp his authority" at the bank as he outlines his key priorities for the business in a letter to shareholders, the Financial Times writes.

Google (Xetra: A0B7FY - news) has launched Project Fi, a wireless service in the US designed to switch between Wi-Fi and cellular networks to keep phone bills low, according to The Guardian. China has warned that North Korea could double its nuclear-weapons arsenal by next year, well beyond previous US figures, according to The Wall Street Journal. The estimates "suggest Pyongyang can make enough warheads to threaten regional security for the US and its allies", the paper said.

The Flash Crash trader Navinder Singh Sarao has said he will fight his extradition to the US after being accused of wiping hundreds of billions of pounds from global stock markets in 2010, writes The Telegraph.