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The 55-year-old was questioned by police in Paris earlier this week and has now been remanded into custody.

He denies wrongdoing and is suing one of his accusers, a former radical Islamist, for slander.

Mr Ramadan teaches at Oxford University, but took leave of absence after the claims surfaced in October.

An examining magistrate will now compile a case, and determine whether Mr Ramadan will stand trial for rape and assault.

His first accuser is Henda Ayari, a former Muslim radical who now heads a secular feminist group.

In a book published in 2016, she wrote about being raped in a Paris hotel four years earlier, but the book did not name the attacker.

But in October 2017, she said the sexual assault scandal surrounding Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein had emboldened her to accuse Mr Ramadan explicitly.

A few days later another woman, a convert to Islam who has remained anonymous, accused him of raping her in 2009.

Four Swiss women have also accused the scholar of making sexual advances while they were students in Geneva. He says all the allegations are part of a campaign by his enemies.

A controversial and influential figure among Muslim scholars, he is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian imam who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920s.

Tariq Ramadan challenges Muslim fundamentalists and encourages dialogue between religions, but some critics say he is a promoting a version of Islam that is inconsistent with French secular values.

He has made regular media appearances in France and Britain, and is a popular figure among young Muslims in Europe.

Mr Ramadan is a Swiss national and since 2009 has been professor of contemporary Islamic studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford.

He has also sat on a UK Foreign Office advisory group on freedom of religion.

The latest thinking was revealed in a Pentagon policy statement known as the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR).

The US military is concerned Moscow sees US nuclear weapons as too big to be used – meaning they are no longer an effective deterrent.

Developing smaller nukes would challenge that assumption, it argues.

Low-yield weapons are smaller, less powerful bombs with a strength below 20 kilotons.

They are still devastating, however. The atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki at the end of World War Two had about the same explosive power, and killed more than 70,000 people.

“Our strategy will ensure Russia understands that any use of nuclear weapons, however limited, is unacceptable,” the document said.

US Deputy Secretary of Defence, Patrick Shanahan, said the country’s nuclear arsenal had kept it safe for over 70 years.

“We cannot afford to let it become obsolete,” he told a media briefing in Washington.

It is the first time since 2010 that the US military has outlined its perception of future nuclear threats.

The proposed “tactical” nukes would not increase America’s arsenal, which is already considerable, but would repurpose existing warheads.

Nonetheless, critics have accused the Trump administration of challenging the spirit of non-proliferation agreements.

The NPR also highlights the White House’s concerns about North Korea, China and Iran.

For the Trump Administration the goal of this review is to modernise and adapt the US nuclear arsenal for unsettled times.

The three main elements of America’s nuclear forces – Land-based ballistic missiles, submarine-launched missiles, and air-delivered weapons – are to be extensively modernised.

These are programmes which actually began under the Obama Administration.

What is new is the perceived need for two new types of nuclear weapons to provide – in the words of US officials – “more flexible capabilities to give tailored deterrence”.

These include the modification of some submarine-launched nuclear warheads to give a lower-yield or less powerful detonation, as well as bringing back sea-based nuclear cruise missiles.

US officials insist that this makes the US deterrent more credible and thus actually raises the nuclear threshold.

But critics worry that such weapons could blur the distinction between nuclear and non-nuclear systems, and actually

Environmental health officers deemed the West View Chinese Takeaway in Dunston, Gateshead, a “health risk”.

They found “significant accumulations” of dirt, grease and food debris on preparation surfaces and equipment.

Tuck Chee See pleaded guilty to failing to keep the premises and equipment clean and was fined a total of £1,636.

Inspectors shut the takeaway while a thorough cleaning was carried out. It was then allowed to reopen after a further visit a few days later.

The inspection, in July, found wet, sticky grease and food debris had been allowed to build up through lack of cleaning.

Standards of cleanliness and controls to prevent cross-contamination were also rated as “very poor”.

According to the environmental health officer, conditions posed a “health risk condition”, meaning the poor hygiene standards presented an imminent risk of injury to health to the public.

Magistrates in Gateshead fined Tuck Chee Su £589 for failing to keep the premises clean, a further £589 for failing to keep equipment which comes into contact with food clean, a £58 victim surcharge and £400 costs.

Sarah Hand, who also had cocaine and cannabis in her system, overcorrected an error and hit two cars on the A1307 in Cambridgeshire on 22 December.

Gail Brown, 56, was killed in the head-on crash, Cambridge Crown Court heard.

Hand, 50, of Aragon Road, Haverhill, admitted causing death by careless driving and was jailed for eight years.

Sentencing, Judge Stuart Bridge said: “The collision occurred because she lost control of her car quite simply because she was incapable of driving it because of the quantity of alcohol in her body.”

The court heard Hand was driving her Ford Fiesta towards Linton when she veered on to a grass verge on her side of the road.

She then steered back to correct herself but lost control, crossed into oncoming traffic, hitting Ms Brown’s Nissan Micra and another motorist, David Percy, who suffered minor injuries.

Hand told a motorist who had stopped at the scene “I’m not going to lie, I’ve been drinking” and put her head in her hands and said “what have I done?”.

In her police interview Hand claimed she only had the equivalent of two shots of both vodka and gin, but was found to have 162mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood, more than twice the legal limit, after drinking that morning.

She also had 10 times the limit of a breakdown of cocaine and was over the legal cannabis limit.

Judge Bridge said Hand had an “utterly cavalier and reckless approach to driving that day” and told her “you were an accident waiting to happen”.

In mitigation, John Dye said mother-of-one Hand, who was on crutches in the dock after breaking her pelvis in the crash, had a history of alcoholism and suffered from complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

He added: “She accepts and knows full well the misery she caused will not go away.”

Hand, who cried throughout the hearing, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving while being over the prescribed limit for alcohol and specified limit for benzoylecgonine, a breakdown of cocaine, and cannabis.

The judge said she would serve half her sentence in jail and banned her from driving for 14 years.

Sir Brian Leveson and Mr Justice Garnham will consider whether to allow the mayor of London and two of Worboys’ victims to apply for a judicial review.

The Parole Board provoked anger last month after announcing Worboys would be released from prison.

The 60-year-old was jailed for a minimum term of eight years in 2009.

He was convicted of 19 offences and given an indeterminate sentence for public protection.

Police believe he may have carried out more than 100 rapes and sexual assaults.

If the judges grant permission, they will set a date for a full judicial review hearing.

Last week, a judge ordered that the release of Worboys – who has changed his name to John Radford – should be halted at least until next week’s hearing is over.

Scotland Yard is still investigating a freshly-reported allegation of sexual assault made against the former London cab driver dating back to 1997.

At his trial, jurors heard Worboys picked up his victims in London’s West End and gave them champagne laced with sedatives, claiming he had won the lottery or had won money at casinos.

He was convicted of one rape, five sexual assaults, one attempted assault and 12 drugging charges.

No arrests have been made over the latest allegation.

Ashwin Daudia, 51, of Lyme Road, Leicester, claimed he “lost control” and retaliated when Kiran Daudia attacked him.

However, jurors at Leicester Crown Court found him guilty of murder after a two-week trial.

“It was an opportunity to be child-like… innocent and sweet,” said the actor, who appeared with Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Winter, now 52, was sexually abused as a child actor in the 1970s by a man who is now dead.

“I absolutely feel like a survivor,” he told BBC Radio 5 live’s Adrian Chiles

Speaking about making the first Bill and Ted film in 1989, he said: “The movies are what they are, they’re silly and all that, I don’t hold them in overly high estimation as works of art or anything, but we had a lot of fun making them.

“But for me personally, in terms of the experience… it was really, really helpful for me mentally. And it was a great environment.

“The world of Bill and Ted is a very sweet and fun place to run around in”

He added that he now has a “functioning, healthy life”, and said: “I love my career, I love my family and my kids. I feel incredibly lucky.”

But he went through “very hard moments along the way… you go to some very dark places. And you can get very dysfunctional”.

He said he carries “an identification with those that didn’t make it, with the people that killed themselves, with people who are just walking around like a powder keg.”

Winter, whose other films include 1987’s The Lost Boys, which starred Kiefer Sutherland, and Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey in 1991, said he had previously held his silence about his childhood experiences.

Describing the impact of being abused as a young boy, he said: “It’s hellish, to be totally frank. You know, it’s hellish.

“I don’t think anybody felt like they were going to be heard if they said anything about this type of behaviour, until very recently.

“I didn’t feel that I had any place of safety to unlock an extremely sensitive and potentially dangerous secret,” he continued.

Winter said his experiences had left him with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] and that he had had to do “heavy lifting” to work through it.

The actor was speaking in the wake of a deluge of allegations of sexual abuse and harassment against leading figures from Hollywood, sport and politics.

“The biggest light bulb I’ve ever had, since I was abused, was when this stuff started coming out, over the course of the last year,” he told the BBC.

“I never thought in my lifetime that I would ever be… sitting here talking to a BBC radio person about my childhood sexual abuse.”

Nigel had been on Mana Island for five years and was besotted with one of the 80 decoys spread across the island.

Conservation ranger Chris Bell, who found Nigel’s body last week, said his passing was “incredibly sad”.

“This just feels like the wrong ending to the story,” Mr Bell said.

Nigel was found next to his immobile concrete partner, who was part of a fake colony created to help lure gannets to Mana Island off the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island.

He had been observed over the years by volunteers who said they were touched after witnessing him carefully construct a nest from seaweed and twigs on the cliff edge in an apparent act of courtship in 2013.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, conservation group Friends of Mana Island wrote that Nigel “won the hearts” of its members and visitors to the island.

The group, which says that three other gannets recently arrived on the island as a “Christmas surprise”, posted a poem dedicated to the dead bird, with the message: “RIP ‘no mates’ Nigel.”

“We weeded, we painted, we sprayed guano around,” the post reads, adding: “We hoped you’d find the real thing.”

Mr Bell said that with the recent arrival of other gannets, Nigel’s love affair may not have been “for nothing”, the Guardian newspaper reports.

“Whether or not he was lonely, he certainly never got anything back, and that must have been very strange experience,” he said.

“I think we all have a lot of empathy for him, because he had this fairly hopeless situation.”

Despite the arrival of the three other gannets, Nigel apparently refused to be separated from his replica mate and his commitment was confirmed when he later died by its side.

The man, named by US media as Randall Margraves, was restrained by three court security officers.

Before rushing to the table where Nassar was sitting, the man had asked to have “five minutes in a locker room with that demon”.

Judge Janice Cunningham said she could not allow that.

Mr Margraves then asked the judge for just one minute, to awkward laughter from the courtroom.

The judge repeated her refusal – and shouts and gasps were heard as the furious father bolted towards Nassar, who was present in an orange prison jumpsuit.

The dramatic intervention brought Nassar’s final sentencing hearing to an abrupt halt.

Two of the Margraves daughters, Madison and Lauren, had just testified about their abuse at the hands of the doctor.

“I want that son of a bitch!” Mr Margraves shouted as he was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed.

“What if this happened to you guys?” he demanded of the officers who escorted him from the courtroom.

The incident came as dozens of women waited for their turn to confront Nassar in court and outline the abuse they suffered at his hands.

Nassar, a former US Olympic gymnastics team doctor, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison a week ago after testimony from nearly 160 of his victims.

In handing down that sentence, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina told Nassar: “Sir, you do not deserve to walk outside of a prison ever again.”

The 54-year-old was already serving 60 years in prison for possession of child sex abuse images.

Olympic gold medal winners Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber were among those the doctor molested.

Other victims were taken to be treated by him at Michigan State University, where he worked between 1997 and 2016.

Earlier this week, Judge Cunningham said the number of known victims had grown to 265.

The hearing continued after a short break. The judge called the situation “scary”, but added that she could not imagine Mr Margraves’ pain as a father.

Steve Baker said he had been told Treasury officials were deliberately trying to influence policy in favour of staying in the EU customs union.

Charles Grant, an EU policy expert said to have been the source of the claims, has since denied telling Mr Baker this.

Mr Baker told MPs he now accepted this and insisted that he had the “highest regard” for the civil service.

In a short speech in the Commons before proceedings began on Friday, Mr Baker said he wanted to set the record straight.

“As I explained yesterday (Thursday) I considered what I understood to be the suggestion being put to me as implausible because of the long standing and well regarded impartiality of the civil service,” he said.

After Mr Baker’s claims emerged on Thursday, Mr Grant, the Centre for European Reform think tank chief, issued a statement.

He said he recalled telling the minister at an event at the Conservative Party conference that he was aware of Treasury research showing the economic costs of leaving the customs union outweighed the benefits of striking free trade deals.

But he added: “I did not say or imply that the Treasury had deliberately developed a model to show that all non-customs union options were bad, with the intention to influence policy.”

An audio recording of Mr Grant’s lunch at the Tory conference has since been published online.

In his apology, Mr Baker said: “In the context of that audio I accept that I should have corrected or dismissed the premise of my Hon Friend’s question.

“I have apologised to Charles Grant who is an honest and trustworthy man.

“As I have put on record many times I have the highest regard for our hard-working civil servants. I am grateful for this early opportunity to correct the record, and I apologise to the House.”

Downing Street said it was “the right thing to do” for Mr Baker to have made a “heartfelt” apology for his comments, adding: “We consider this matter closed.”

Theresa May’s spokesman said the prime minister had not personally spoken to Mr Baker about the row but No 10 officials did have a word with him after the recording of Mr Grant’s lunch emerged.

The row was sparked by Commons exchanges on Thursday at Brexit questions.

Prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg asked Mr Baker to confirm if he had heard Mr Grant that “officials in the Treasury have deliberately developed a model to show that all options other than staying in the customs union were bad and that officials intended to use this to influence policy”.

In response, Mr Baker said he was “sorry to say” that Mr Rees-Mogg’s account was “essentially correct”, adding: “At the time I considered it implausible because my direct experience is that civil servants are extraordinarily careful to uphold the impartiality of the civil service.”

Mr Baker, a leading backbench Eurosceptic before his promotion to a ministerial post, was challenged by opposition MPs as he delivered his answer to Mr Rees-Mogg, prompting him to add: “I didn’t say it was correct. I said the account that was put to me is correct.

“It was put to me, I considered it an extraordinary allegation, I still consider it an extraordinary allegation.”

Mr Baker was criticised by Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union which represents senior civil servants.

“To stand at the despatch box and refuse to challenge a half-baked conspiracy theory about the civil service – one that is even now being disowned by its supposed source – is the height of irresponsibility from a serving minister,” he said.

“It is not good enough for Mr Baker to simply shrug his shoulders and allow unfounded accusations about officials to go unchallenged.”

Earlier this week the union clashed with Mr Baker after the minister dismissed a leaked government report about the economic impact of Brexit, saying civil service forecasts were “always wrong”.

Before Mr Baker’s correction, Downing Street had said that the prime minister had full confidence in him.