These African migrants are hoping to do a little more than play through

Dating back as far as the the 15th Century, Spain has had a number of exclaves on the coast of North Africa.

While Morocco wants the territories handed over to it, Spain has long resisted, saying that their nearly six centuries as part of Spain make them integral parts of Spanish territory. But they also represent the easiest gateway for African migrants looking to cross into the European Union.

But crossing isn't easy, and with a relatively short border, Spanish authorities watch carefully. On Wednesday, almost two dozen migrants got caught atop the triple fence as they tried to enter the exclave of Melilla. All told, nearly 200 tried to cross and 70 made it that day. The Guardian reports on the thousands of migrants who try to enter the EU each year through these relatively small exclaves.

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The UK's House of Commons has a mouse problem

There's a vermin problem in the UK Parliament — and we're not talking about the politicians. We're talking about mice. There have been several reports of mice having been seen scurrying through the halls, including in areas where food is prepared. Gross. You're probably thinking there's a simple solution to this mice problem: cats. But the British officials are saying no to that.

According to Al Arabiya, authorities have said the mice problem is so pervasive and the Parliament building is so large that it would take a massive number of cats to make any appreciable difference in the building's mice problem. Lawmaker John Thurso said the problem would require a "herd of cats." "Herding cats is quite difficult," he added — apparently without even a touch of irony.

Our world is getting safer all the time

While it may not seem like it, the world is getting safer and less violent all the time. You'd be excused from not believing us, given how conflicts, terrorist attacks, Ebola outbreaks and even climate change seemed to dominate the news these days. But judged over time, there's no question that we're living in one of the most peaceful, safe times in humanity's history.

How do we know that? Data. PRI's The Takeaway spoke with the founder of the website ourworldindata.org, who has collected many of the datasets that prove just how safe things are. Among his evidence: deaths from wars are at historic low levels, malaria deaths have declined by nearly 25 percent just since 2004, and people are working far fewer hours than they did 100 years ago. Sure, any given year may see a spike, but virtually all the data point to the world consistently getting safer.

This 22-year-old has become a premiere online jihadi hunter

Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi hunts jihadis. No, he's not deployed to Iraq or Syria with a Western military; he's working from his home in the United Kingdom. And he hunts jihadis online. VICE News recently profiled al-Tamimi and looked at some of the challenges he faces in separating the real terrorists from social media pretenders.

Take the al-Qadisiyah Men's Army, an online insurgency that could be confused for a real rival to ISIS. But outside of its Facebook page and some tweets, the group doesn't really exist. Al-Tamimi believes the group is probably just one individual tending to a Facebook page. Al-Tamimi isn't fighting his fight alone — he's one of a number of self-taught jihadi hunters who are gathering information about terrorist networks across the Internet and then posting their findings on blogs. He's been so successful he was recently invited to speak before parliament.

These tattoos aren't a spring break mistake

For decades, Soviet criminals marked their incarceration in visible ways — by getting prison tattoos. Equal parts personal story and criminal wrap sheet, these tattoos served to identify criminals to one another and to reward good behavior and punish violations of the criminal code. In a society where tattoos were uncommon, they became a way for criminals to set themselves apart.

PRI's The World looks at what various prison tattoos mean — if you see someone with a knife tattooed on his neck, you should probably head the other way — and how changes in the economy have eliminated much of the reasoning behind and exclusivity of the prison tattoo. 

What we're seeing on social

Weather around the world

Strong storms lashed protesters in Hong Kong Wednesday — but they didn't dampen protesters. According to Channel News Asia, the number of protesters dwindled, but those who stayed held firm. Using whatever they could find, they built impromptu shelters and tried to stay dry. These aren't the first storms the protesters have faced, but they were certainly the most significant.