This just in from Fox News:
WASHINGTON — A report of a bomb aboard a Turkish merchant ship Thursday forced the U.S. Coast Guard to escort the vessel away from the port of Philadelphia and out into the sea off Delaware, senior Defense officials told FOX News.
The ship’s master notified authorities about the possible bomb, officials said. The information was revealed after the captain refused to have portions of the ship searched by the Coast Guard….
UPDATE: There was no bomb. The FBI has now charged the ship’s captain with making a false statement. From CBS:
BOWERS BEACH, DE (CBS) The captain of a Turkish merchant ship headed into Philadelphia harbor falsely told a Coast Guard inspector the vessel had a bomb on board Thursday, forcing officials to order the ship to turn around, an FBI spokesman said.
Yildirim Bayazer Tumer, 46, became agitated when members of the Philadelphia Coast Guard boarded the ship for a routine inspection Thursday morning, said Barry Maddox, a spokesman for the FBI’s Baltimore field office.
Tumer told an officer that there was a bomb on board that was set to blow up when the ship docked at the port of Philadelphia, Maddox said.
The Coast Guard notified the FBI and other agencies, and the ship was turned around and held at a safe anchorage point near Bowers Beach on the Delaware Bay. Authorities performed a thorough search that lasted a few hours, and no evidence of a bomb was found, Maddox said.
Tumer was charged late Thursday with making a false statement to a federal official, a felony. He was expected to have an initial appearance Friday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Maddox said.