However, the defending British visually-impaired mixed coxed fours boat, easily booked their place in Saturday's final - winning the semi-final by 13 seconds.

BBC: SPORT | Other Sport... | Rowing | British boats crash out in Japan

Since 1966, England have had a mixed record in the World Cup and have managed to reach the semi-finals on just one occasion in 1990.

BBC: England not good enough to win World Cup - Geoff Hurst

For this story of semi-anonymous group heroism, he uses actual professionals (pilots, flight attendants, an air-traffic controller) mixed in with largely unknown actors, and avoids visual or verbal rhetoric.

NEWYORKER: United 93

The 10-nation grouping brings together different forms of government (democracy, semi-democracy and authoritarian), different levels of economic development, as well as populations that are racially different or mixed and predominantly Muslim, Buddhist or Christian.

CNN: Intelligence: The Week Ahead