It handed its China routes to smaller rival Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Ltd, in which Cathay now has a 17.79 percent stake, under Hong Kong's "one carrier, one route" policy, which was recently relaxed.

CNN: Cathay Pacific returns to China

For now, even as retailers seek to tweak or clarify this policy, lawyers who created this entry route are now looking for alternatives.

FORBES: A Backdoor That Leads Nowhere

When answering important questions related to policy, privacy or strategy, Zuckerberg typically takes the scenic route to reaching some kind of answer.

FORBES: The rambling exposition

Yet barring a deus ex machina, such as a foreign-policy crisis, a Tory super-scandal or an improbably rapid economic recovery, a route to victory for the government at the next election is increasingly difficult to envisage.

ECONOMIST: Labour's predicament

The government is to ask Transport Scotland to identify which part of the route could be dualled in the short-term, ahead of next year's Strategic Transport Policy Review.

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