Suspicious cargo container disrupts traffic at LA port (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Cargo traffic at the Port of Los Angeles was disrupted on Wednesday after longshoremen discovered a shipping container with the word "bomb" painted on the outside, a spokesman for the facility said.

Dock workers at the nation's busiest container port reported coming across the suspicious cargo bin as it was being unloaded from a ship on Wednesday afternoon, port spokesman Phillip Sanfield said.

Roughly 10 percent of the port was forced to close as the area was cordoned off and a Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad, bomb-sniffing dogs and other agencies arrived to investigate the container, Sanfield said.

The loading and unloading of two vessels was temporarily halted at one of the port's eight container terminals, and the crew of the ship that had carried the spray-painted cargo bin was evacuated as a precaution, he added.

Shortly after 9 p.m. local time, authorities at the scene reported that no suspicious material was found inside the container, Sanfield said in an email message.

"We see all sorts of cargo that's inspected and odd things," Sanfield said, but "it's unusual to have that sort of graffiti on a container at the port." He said the word "bomb" had appeared in spray-painted lettering in a "couple" places on the container.

Police spokesman Cleon Joseph said no threat was received by the port in connection with the incident.

Sanfield said the container in question had arrived on a Singapore-flagged vessel that originated in Vietnam and stopped over in Oakland, California, en route to Los Angeles.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Bohan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111222/us_nm/us_losangeles_port_security

music awards music awards giants eagles bcs rankings week 13 bcs rankings week 13 philadelphia marathon rhodes scholar