Pennsylvania News Briefs

Ukrainian first lady Kateryna Yushchenko toured a Pittsburgh hospital and said she hopes to develop partnerships between the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and hospitals in her country.

The wife of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko toured Children’s Hospital in the city’s Oakland section on Saturday, along with Ukrainian Ambassador Oleh Shanshur and Vira Pavliuk, director of the Children’s Hospital program for Yushchenko’s Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation.

She said she wants to use the development of UPMC’s new Children’s Hospital as a model for hospitals in her country. She said she wants to see cooperation between American and Ukrainian doctors, particularly in cancer research.

Cancer is a major concern in Ukraine 22 years after the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster.

Bensalem

Man kills clerk out of revenge, police say

Authorities filed murder charges on Sunday against a 35-year-old man, saying he exacted revenge against a takeout clerk who had escorted him out of a Bensalem bar Saturday night by killing him in the parking lot a few minutes later with a pickup truck.

Jose Maldonado-Luzuriaga was sent to the Bucks County prison on homicide and related charges Sunday morning after failing to post $3 million bail in the death of William Sullo III of Philadelphia, said First Assistant District Attorney David Zellis.

Maldonado-Luzuriaga had been drinking heavily before he set foot into Salute Restaurant Bar on Knights Road around 10:22 Saturday night, authorities allege in investigative documents released today.

So bartenders refused to serve him and gave him a glass of water, officials said.

A short time later, one of those bartenders, with help from Sullo, removed him from the premises because they had spotted him drinking beer that had been slipped to him by a fellow patron, authorities said.

Zellis said Maldonado-Luzuriaga, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador who lived up the road from the Salute bar, got into a white 2006 Ford F150, circled the lot a few times, aimed the pickup toward the front of the bar and gunned in anger toward Sullo, who stood on the curb watching.

Sullo, 30, of Philadelphia, died after being pinned against the exterior wall of the bar, authorities said.

PHILADELPHIA

Trolleys’ way to avoid collisions criticized

Officials say a $25 million collision-avoidance system on Philadelphia trolley lines is creating delays for riders.

The system controls Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority trolleys going to and from West Philadelphia. It was designed to prevent rear-end collisions.

But riders and SEPTA officials say it’s slowed cars too often and sometimes backed up trolleys five or six deep. SEPTA says it’s still having several failures a day.

PITTSBURGH

Man kills pregnant cousin, police say

Police say a 21-year-old man fatally shot his pregnant cousin inside her Pittsburgh apartment.

Deaundra Williams has been charged with homicide in the death of 20-year-old Shalane Graham. Police say Graham was two months pregnant.

The shooting happened around 3 a.m. Saturday in Graham’s apartment in the city’s Hill District. She had thrown a party earlier in the evening, but police are still trying to figure out details of the shooting or a possible motive.