2016年经济学人 一周要闻 印度经济增长迅猛 沙特为优步提供35亿美元融资（在线收听）

Yusuf Alireza unexpectedly quit as chief executive of Noble Group, Asia's biggest commodities-trading firm. Noble, which is based in Hong Kong, has been hit by the slump in commodity prices and faces allegations from a research outfit that it overstated its assets, which the company denies. On the day that Mr. Alireza's departure was announced Noble also said it would sell its profitable American retail-energy business; the proceeds will go towards repairing its balance-sheet.

亚洲最大商品贸易商来宝集团（Noble Group）首席执行官优素福·阿里(Yusuf Alireza)意外宣布离职。总部位于香港的来宝集团由于商品价格问题遭受重创。同时，有调查小组指控该公司夸大其资产价值，但来宝对此进行否认。就在阿里离职当日，宝来集团还宣布将出售旗下利润颇丰的美国能源零售业务，此作为改善财务负债的一项措施。

The Obama administration detailed new rules to regulate providers of payday loans. Such lending is aimed at people on low incomes and attracts very high interest rates. The government wants lenders to do more to assess a borrower's ability to repay.

美国政府公布了针对发薪日贷款（payday loans）放贷人的详细管理新规。该类贷款利息高，对象主要为低收入人群。政府希望贷方能够更加全面地评估借方的偿还能力。

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund ploughed $3.5 billion into Uber and got a seat on its board. It is the taxi-hailing app's biggest single infusion of cash, and brings the total from its latest round of financing to $5 billion. The privately held firm is estimated to be worth more than General Motors.

沙特阿拉伯主权基金向打车软件公司优步（Uber）投资35亿美元，由此成为优步股东之一。这是优步有史以来获得的最大单笔投资。获此投资后，优步新一轮融资总规模将达到50亿美元。据估计，该私营公司总资产已超过通用汽车（General Motors）。

SoftBank, a multinational telecoms and internet group that is based in Japan, decided to sell $7.9 billion-worth of the shares it holds in Alibaba, which will reduce its stake in the Chinese e-commerce company from 32% to 28%. SoftBank needs to repay the debt it accumulated to fund a number of big acquisitions, including the Sprint network in America. It is reportedly looking to offload some of its other stakes, including in Supercell, a Finnish mobile gaming firm.

日本电信和网络跨国集团—软件银行集团（SoftBank）决定出售其在阿里巴巴（Alibaba）持有的79亿美元股份，该举动将使其手中所持有的阿里巴巴股份由32%减至28%。因收购美国网络运营商Sprint等公司，这些大型收购项目使软银欠下大量债务。据报道，该公司正计划部分出售所持包括芬兰移动游戏公司Supercell在内的其他公司股份。

A jury in California rejected Oracle's $9 billion claim that Google infringed its copyright on Java by wiring the software into Android phones. Oracle took ownership of Java when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2010 and it has been battling with Google in the courts ever since. The jury found that Google's use of Java came under the “fair use” element of copyright law.

加州陪审团驳回了美国科网巨头甲骨文（Oracle）对谷歌（Google）的指控。该指控称，谷歌将Java程序编入其安卓手机中，侵犯了甲骨文公司的版权，应赔偿90亿美元。自2010年甲骨文收购太阳微系统公司（Sun Microsystems）同时获得Java所有权后，两家公司一直在法庭上就版权问题展开交锋。陪审团经研究后认为，谷歌使用Java是符合版权法“正当使用”条款的。

A former director at Barclays in New York was charged with allegedly passing inside information on forthcoming mergers to his plumber, who has pleaded guilty to using the illegal tips to make money on the markets. The director has yet to enter a plea. The plumber repaid the banker in part by refurbishing his bathroom, but this apparently did not include plugging financial leaks.

纽约巴克莱银行（Barclays）前主任因其泄露内部消息的传言而遭指控。据称，该主任提前将合并案的内部消息透露给他的水管工，而后者也承认曾利用非法信息在市场上赚钱。对此，该主任尚未提出抗辩。尽管在某种程度上，水管工为这位前主任翻修厕所可以被看做是一种报偿，但显然，这一报偿远远无法弥补金融漏洞给前主任带来的损失。