WWII-era bomb discovery in Greece forces evacuation, museum trip for refugees


An unexploded bomb from World War II was removed from under a gas station in Thessaloniki, Greece, on Sunday. Authorities ordered evacuation of more than 70,000 people so the 500-pound weapon could be transported and safely defused at a firing range.
Among the evacuees was a group of about 450 Syrian refugees living in a refugee camp housed in a former toilet paper factory nearby. They were taken on a trip to the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki while the bomb was deactivated, an outing organized at the refugees' request as a respite from what are described as "prison-like" living conditions in the factory.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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