The Sudanese refugees sheltering in Chad

Kate Adie introduces correspondents' and writers' stories from the Chad/Sudan border, Hawaii's Maui island, Belize, Portugal and Azerbaijan

More than a million people have fled violence in Sudan for relative safety over the border in Chad - but conditions there are harsh, and medical help running desperately short. Mercy Juma spent a week near the refugee camp in Adre hearing stories of what had driven so many from their homes in Darfur.

Maui island is still reeling in shock and grief after the wildfires, fanned up by strong winds, which have ripped across it and burned the town of Lahaina to the ground. John Sudworth reflects on the anger and concern - as well as the resilience - he's heard expressed by Hawaiians over their state's emergency response.

How can one of the Western Hemisphere's smallest countries, Belize, take care of one of its longest barrier reefs? In a heavily indebted nation of under half a million people that's also highly vulnerable to climate change, NGOs must often step in where the state can't enforce conservation measures. Linda Pressly took took a boat to a speck in the Caribbean called Laughing Bird Caye, to hear of the threats from fishing boats, tourists - and even drug smugglers - in these waters.

Portugal's government has drawn up a plan promising the nation "More Housing" - trying to address a runaway property boom and a sense that a decent home is now out of reach for far too many people. But as Alison Roberts explains, rebalancing both rental and buyers' markets will not be easy.

And in the cities of Baku and Shusha, Simon Broughton pays close attention to sounds from Azerbaijan's own classical music tradition: the genre called mugha, which mixes delicate instrumentation with poetic vocals, lively improvisation and deep human feeling.

Producer: Polly Hope Editor: Bridget Harney Production Co-Ordinator: Gemma Ashman