News Headlines - 16 March 2016

▽Five things we learned from Janet Yellen about the economy and Fed rate hikes - LA Times

Federal Reserve policymakers said the U.S. economy is strong enough to handle increases in a key interest rate this year, but they have scaled back the number of anticipated hikes in the wake of slower growth caused by recent financial market volatility.
The decision Wednesday to hold the benchmark federal funds rate steady came as Fed officials slightly lowered their forecasts for U.S. economic performance this year and next.
They also signaled there would be no more than two small rate hikes this year — half what they had estimated in December.

▽Budget 2016: Osborne's giveaways 'mask ￡56bn black hole' | The Guardian

George Osborne’s attempt to woo voters ahead of Britain’s EU referendum has come under immediate and intense scrutiny after he used a range of accounting devices to disguise a looming ￡56bn “black hole” in the government’s finances and deliver a promised surplus by the end of the decade.

▽Four arrested during counter-terrorism operation in France | euronews

Four people have been arrested in Paris as part of a wider investigation into a possible plot to stage an attack in France.
Three men and a woman were reportedly arrested at dawn in the 18th district of the city and the nearby region of Seine-Saint-Denis on the suspicion they were planning an attack.

▽New York Times, BBC and others inadvertently serve up dangerous ads - CNET

On Sunday and Monday, the Times, the BBC, AOL and a host of other major news and entertainment websites inadvertently ran malicious ads that attempted to hijack the computers of visitors and demand a ransom, according to security researchers Malwarebytes and Trend Micro.

▽PlayStation boss: virtual reality throws out the game-design rule book | The Guardian

Andrew House says PlayStation VR headset will offer completely new gaming experiences, levelling the traditional games industry power structures