25 January 2008: Emergency! Return to base!

One of Britain's biggest warships has been forced to retreat back to base because of a technical fault in a key component. The ship's fridge.

The aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious sailed from Portsmouth on Wednesday to join multi-national operations in the Indian Ocean. But she had to turn back because a refrigeration unit used to store meat was in danger of breaking down.

"It wouldn't be prudent for her to go off with the chance of the unit breaking down while she was a warm climate and then engineers would have to be flown out to her to fix it", a Navy Spokesman commented.