A man in northeastern China who stole 6 million yuan (US$874,000) after hijacking an armored bank truck he was driving said he carried out the heist to pay off his debts.

Li Xuyi took four security guards hostage on Sept 7 using a “gunlike object” and then fled with the truck, according to a statement by the Yingkou Intermediate People’s Court in Liaoning province.

The defendant, who confessed to the crime, was hired by a security company in July and was transporting 35 million yuan in cash from the Agricultural Bank of China’s Yingkou branch to a cash storage center.

He was arrested at his home eight hours after the robbery. Police recovered 6 million yuan from the home of one of Li’s relatives, while the rest of the cash was left in the truck, which was abandoned in a residential parking area.

China Central Television reported that a guard in the truck said Li diverted the vehicle from its normal route and disarmed the guard in the passenger seat by threatening him with a “black gun”, which it was later discovered was not a real firearm.

Li then produced duct tape and ordered the guard and two other unarmed guards to tie themselves up. According to police, he took three bags of cash, which he intended to use to pay off his debts to a bank.

A news website owned by NetEase reported that Li, who was tried on Jan 24, used to be a construction contractor and once had a car wash business.

The Yingkou court will sentence Li at a later date.

A police investigation is underway into the theft of black swan eggs at a scenic spot over Spring Festival, which has left the Swan pair grief-stricken and unable to eat.

The eggs were taken from the breeding pair at the swan scenic spot of Mount Tai, east China’s Shandong province.

Staff members have reviewed security camera footage and said that two tourists may have been responsible for the theft.

Li Yaming, general manager of the swan breeding company in Taian city, told reporters that the swan eggs went missing on February 1. Keepers found that the black swan couple had left their nest, were making a lot of noise, and were being aggressive towards people coming too near to them.

“The two black swans were behaving very abnormally, and then the breeder found out that the five black swan eggs were all gone,” said Li Yaming.

Swans tend to stay in the nest during the incubation period. In general, male swans keep guard while female swans incubate the eggs. The thieves would have needed to wait for the swan couple to take a break before taking the eggs, said Li.

According to the staff at the scenic spot, unhatched eggs are useless to ordinary people. The eggs can’t be eaten nor can they be hatched. Also, the eggs could explode in hot weather. But even if they were returned by the thieves, the five missing eggs can no longer be hatched.

Swans are nationally protected animals, and as they are strictly monogamous, they are seen as a symbol of loyalty in love.

Incubating eggs for swans is a painful process. Female swans only produce 4-7 eggs every spring, and the time needed for the eggs to incubate is 36 days. Even with great care by swan couples, the survival rate of eggs is only 50 percent.

Several hospital officials in east China’s Shandong Province have been sacked after nine patients were infected by hepatitis B there.

The head and deputy head of the People’s Hospital in Chengyang District of Qingdao City have been removed from their administrative and Communist Party of China posts, according to the district government.

The director of the hospital’s infection-control and nursing departments, and the director and nursing head of the hemodialysis unit have also been removed from their posts. Other staff implicated have received discipline punishments of the CPC.

According to the local government, the district’s health and family planning bureau received a report about nine patients infected by hepatitis B in January. Investigators later found that it was staff with the hospital’s hemodialysis unit who operated against regulations that led to the infections.

The patients are receiving treatment and are stable.

The Chinese government has decided to improve policy on the production, distribution and use of drugs.

A document released by the General Office of the State Council proposed systemic reform to improve the quality and therapeutic effect of drugs, and to ensure that supplies are timely and prices reasonable.

Improving the quality and therapeutic effect of drugs is the key task, according to the document, which called for stringent rules for the review and approval for new drugs.

The document said the review and approval of drugs in clinical demand should be streamlined, in addition to supporting generic drugs that had passed conformity assessments, as well as cracking down on offences in the producing and selling of counterfeit and low quality drugs.

The document suggested creating and expediting a network led by major and key enterprises, but supported by small and medium-sized enterprises.

In order to improve drug price transparency, a mechanism to ensure factory prices’ traceability was proposed.

Public hospitals should prioritize essential medicines, which must be available to the public at all times, in adequate amounts and at affordable prices.

It said the markup on drugs should be contained, and medical insurance’s role should be strengthened, with payment methods improved.

China plans to provide comprehensive medical care across the country through medical reform that will benefit both urban and rural residents.

The top legislature has been working with authorities on a law to help pharmacists properly prepare and allocate medicine, according to the country’s health authorities.

In December, the State Council approved two documents, one on improving health care and medical service and another on medical reform, for the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020).

More improvements will be made to the medicine supply system, and the supply of low-price medicine, children’s medicine, as well as urgent medicine will be ensured.

China’s registered permanent urban residents rose to 41.2 percent of the total population in 2016, after easing of “hukou” (household registration) policy, the Ministry of Public Security announced Thursday.

In 2015, only 39.9 percent of the population held urban status and the current urbanization drive is aiming for 45 percent by 2020.

At a video conference held on Thursday, the ministry of public security called for a more reasonable points system and for registration in most cities for students and migrant workers to become easier still.

The government is gradually bringing the unregistered population into the hukou system, including orphans, second children born illegally during the one-child policy and the homeless.

Last year, more than 1.43 million people formerly without hukou were registered, the ministry said.

Various benefits such as health care and education are based on hukou, and are supposed to be in line with long-term places of work and residence.