PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh hospital is expected to announce the creation of the region's first public-private umbilical cord blood collection service.

It could be a source of stem cells that can be used to treat certain diseases such as leukemia or sickle-cell anemia.

Officials at Magee-Women's Hospital in Pittsburgh say the Dan Berger Blood Cord Program is aimed at expanding options for new mothers to bank umbilical cord blood.

Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta after birth.

The program is named for Daniel Berger, a Pittsburgh lawyer who received two stem cell transplants while battling lymphoma and leukemia. He died last year.

ERIE — Jury selection is set to begin in the trial of an Erie mother accused of swinging her 4-week-old son to hit her boyfriend during a fight.Prosecutors say 28-year-old Chytoria Graham and DeAngelo Troop got into a fight early on Oct. 8, 2006, after Graham came home from a night of drinking.Authorities say Graham grabbed her son Jarron by his feet and swung him, hitting Troop and fracturing the infant's skull. The child has recovered and is living with Graham's family.Graham is charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, simple assault and child endangerment. She pleaded guilty in March to aggravated assault and child endangerment, but later withdrew her plea.

LANGHORNE — An armed man who barricaded himself inside a vehicle for nearly four hours in the parking lot of Bucks County hospital surrendered early Monday.A man and woman showed up outside the emergency room at St. Mary's Medical Center at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday night, and woman told hospital personnel that a man was in the car with a gun to his head, according to Middletown police Sgt. Mark Wert.Officers arrived, found the man in a black SUV outside the emergency room and established phone communications, Wert said.The standoff ended shortly after midnight Monday when the man surrendered.