Hi, Namalanta Kumbh here with some exciting news. My award-winning podcast, DearDota, is back for a second season.

We're bringing you more moving personal stories and more letters of advice from people all around the world.

For daughters, everywhere. That's DearDota from the BBC World Service. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Jackie Leonard and in the early hours of Sunday, the 12th of March, these are our main stories.

Italy's Coast Guard has rescued more than 1200 migrants trying to reach Europe in overcrowded boats.

Mozambique is once again battered by Cyclone Freddie.

And South Africa's anti-corruption watchdog says there's no evidence of wrongdoing by President Cyril Ramaposa.

Also in this podcast, renewed calls to Titan Germany's gun ownership laws and...

Success for me is Gary gets back on air and together we are giving to the audiences that world-class sports coverage, which as I said, I'm sorry we haven't been able to deliver today.

An apology from the head of the BBC after a decision to suspend a sports presenter led to the scrapping of hours of sports programs.

It took three huge rescue operations, but the Italian Coast Guard says it saved more than 1200 migrants from boats in the Mediterranean Sea.

Three vessels each carrying hundreds of people were brought to southern Italian ports after they ran into difficulties in rough seas.

It comes almost two weeks after a deadly shipwreck involving migrants off the Calabrian coast.

Our correspondent Bethany Bell has been following the story.

We don't know exactly which countries they came from, but we know that there were three boats that got into trouble on the seas and they were extremely overcrowded.

The Coast Guard video showed really how difficult it was. One rusty fishing boat was pitching violently backwards and forwards and there were a lot of people visible on deck.

How difficult it was for the rescue workers to get people on to life rafts and on to other boats to bring them to shore.

We know that there were three separate boats. One was more than 160 kilometres out to sea and then there were two other boats as well that were brought to ports in southern Italy.

One of the boats was actually lashed to a tugboat to try and give its stability in the rough seas.

The Coast Guard also said that the rescues were made even more complex because the boats were in the words of the Coast Guard overloaded with migrants and there were very rough seas.

Right now, how busy and indeed how dangerous is that route across the Mediterranean?

...