A court in Moscow on Friday fined Twitter for not taking down calls encouraging minors to take part in unauthorised rallies, the latest in a series of moves against the social media giant that has been used to amplify dissent in Russia.

The court found Twitter guilty on three counts of violating regulations on restricting unlawful content, ordering the company to pay three fines adding up to 8.9 million Russian Rubles ($153,000).

The ruling comes two weeks after Russia's state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor threatened to block Twitter within 30 days if it doesn't take steps to remove banned content.

READ MORE: Russia expels Western diplomats over Navalny rally

Roskomnadzor last month accused Twitter of failing to remove content encouraging suicide among children, as well as information about drugs and child pornography. The agency announced on March 10 it was slowing down the speed of uploading photos and videos to the platform because of that. Twitter in response has emphasised its policy of zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation, the promotion of suicide and drug sales.

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Less than a week later, deputy chief of Roskomnadzor Vadim Subbotin argued that Twitter still wasn't complying with the demands of the Russian authorities, adding that "if things go on like this, then in a month it will be blocked."

Russian authorities earlier this year criticised social media platforms for bringing tens of thousands of people into the streets across Russia in January to demand the release of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most well-known critic. The wave of demonstrations was the largest in years and posed a major challenge to the Kremlin.

The authorities alleged that social media platforms failed to remove calls for children to join the protests. Putin has urged police to act more to monitor social platforms and to track down those who "draw the children into illegal and unsanctioned street actions."

Twitter on Friday offered no comment on the Moscow court ruling.

The Russian government's efforts to tighten control of the internet and social media date back to 2012, when a law allowing authorities to blacklist and block certain online content was adopted. Since then, a growing number of restrictions targeting messaging apps, websites and social media platforms have been introduced in Russia.

The government has repeatedly aired threats to block Facebook and Twitter but stopped short of outright bans, probably fearing the move would elicit too much public outrage. Only the social network LinkedIn, which wasn't very popular in Russia, has been banned by the authorities for the failure to store its user data in Russia.

However, some experts have said Russian authorities might be seriously considering the possibility of bans this time around.

Iran and the major world powers participating in the agreement to keep Tehran from developing nuclear weapons say they are ready to welcome the return of the United States to the deal.

The group — the European Union, China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and Iran — on Friday (Saturday AEDT) "recognised the prospect of a full return of the US to the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)."

The participants also "underlined their readiness to positively address this in a joint effort," the chair of a meeting of high-level officials said.

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They "emphasised their commitment to preserve the JCPOA and discussed modalities to ensure the return to its full and effective implementation," according to a statement after their virtual meeting.

The group said talks would resume on Tuesday in Vienna on the 2015 agreement, "in order to clearly identify sanctions lifting and nuclear implementation measures."

US officials had no immediate public comment but Washington on Thursday welcomed the news that the Europeans would be meeting with the Iranians to try to get talks going again.

READ MORE: Freed Australian academic describes 'psychological torture' in Iran

State Department spokesman Ned Price called that development "a positive step."

President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and President Joe Biden later said rejoining the agreement was a priority for his administration.

The Biden administration and Iran have differed on any conditions for that to happen, including the timing of the lifting of US sanctions.

Friday's statement from the EU-chaired meeting said the group's coordinator "will also intensify separate contacts in Vienna" with all participants of the nuclear agreement and the United States.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif immediately stressed no meeting was planned between officials from Iran and the US.

In a tweet, Mr Zarif said the aim of the Vienna session would be to "rapidly finalise sanction-lifting and nuclear measures for choreographed removal of all sanctions, followed by Iran ceasing remedial measures."

"No Iran-US meeting. Unnecessary," he said.

https://twitter.com/JZarif/status/1377950244508475392

Iranian state television quoted Abbas Araghchi, Iran's nuclear negotiator at the virtual meeting, as saying during the meeting that any "return by the US to the nuclear deal does not require any negotiation and the path is quite clear."

"The US can return to the deal and stop breaching the law in the same way it withdrew from the deal and imposed illegal sanctions on Iran," Mr Araghchi was quoted as saying.

Russia's ambassador to international organisations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said "the impression is that we are on the right track but the way ahead will not be easy and will require intensive efforts.

"The stakeholders seem to be ready for that," he said.

Any return of the United States would involve complications.

Iran has been steadily violating the restrictions of the deal, like the amount of enriched uranium it can stockpile and the purity to which it can enrich it.

Tehran's moves have been calculated to put pressure on the other nations in the deal — Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain — to do more to offset crippling sanctions reimposed under Trump.

Iran has said before it resumes compliance with the deal, the US needs to return to its own obligations by dropping the sanctions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that over the past two years, Iran has accumulated a lot of nuclear material and new capacities, using the time for "honing their skills in these areas."

The ultimate goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something it insists it doesn't want to do.

The country now has enough enriched uranium to make a bomb but nowhere near the amount it had before the nuclear deal was signed.

As part of its ongoing violations of the JCPOA, Iran last month began restricting IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities.

Under a last-minute deal worked out during a trip to Tehran, some access was preserved.

Under that temporary agreement, Iran will no longer share surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities with the IAEA but it has promised to preserve the tapes for three months.

It will then hand them over to the Vienna-based UN atomic watchdog if it is granted sanctions relief.

Otherwise, Iran has vowed to erase the tapes, narrowing the window for a diplomatic breakthrough.

Homicide detectives are trying to piece together what lead to the death of a 20-year-old man found inside a home in Melbourne's east.

The Boronia house was sealed off as officers scoured the property for evidence.

Neighbours said they heard sirens and saw flashing lights just before 4.30am following reports of a stabbing on Lorraine Street.

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"I woke up to the lights and sound from a lot of people talking," one neighbour said.

"It's such a quiet area normally," another said.

Police, including detectives from the homicide squad and forensics, have spent the day at the scene trying to piece together what happened.

A woman carrying a young child was seen leaving the house early this morning after collecting a bag.

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She left in a police car.

Officers have taped off both ends of the street as they try to determine whether the man's death is suspicious or not.

A year 13 school student has been airlifted by rescue helicopter out of the Hopkins Valley in Canterbury after he suffered a medical event during a four day class hiking trip. The male student was tonight airlifted from a tramping…

At least 48 people are dead after a train partially derailed in eastern Taiwan, causing what's said to be the country's deadliest rail disaster.

With the train still partly in a tunnel, survivors climbed out of windows and walked along the train's roof to reach safety, following a collision with an unmanned vehicle that had rolled down a hill.

The crash occurred near the Toroko Gorge scenic area on the first day of a long weekend when many people were hopping trains on Taiwan's extensive rail system. The train had been carrying more than 400 people.

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The National Fire Service confirmed the death toll, which included the train's young, newly married driver, and said all aboard had been accounted for.

More than 100 people were injured, it said. Railways news officer Weng Hui-ping called the crash Taiwan's deadliest rail disaster.

Mr Weng said a construction truck operated by the railway administration slid onto the track from a worksite on the hillside above.

No one was in the truck at the time. He said the speed of the train was not known.

The train had only partially emerged from a tunnel, and with much of it still inside, many escaping passengers were forced to scramble out of doors and windows and scale the sides of the train to walk along the roof to safety.

Television footage and photos posted from the scene on the website of the official Central News Agency showed people climbing out of the open door of a railcar just outside the entrance to the tunnel.

Part of the wall of one car had smashed into a seat.

Taiwan is a mountainous island and most of its 24 million people live in the flatlands along the northern and western coasts that are home to most of the island's farmland, biggest cities and high-tech industries.

The lightly populated east is popular with tourists, many of whom travel there by train to avoid mountain roads.

An investigation was launched into the crash and there was no immediate word about any arrests.

In a tweet, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said emergency services "have been fully mobilised to rescue and assist the passengers & railway staff affected.

"We will continue to do everything we can to ensure their safety in the wake of this heartbreaking incident," he said.

The crash came on the first day of the four-day Tomb Sweeping Festival, an annual religious holiday when people travel to their hometowns for family gatherings and to pay their respects at the graves of their ancestors.

Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang said the Railways Administration would be required to immediately conduct checks along other track lines to "prevent this from happening again."

About 50 volunteers from the Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation stationed at an aid tent near the crash site said children were among the dozens who escaped the train cars. They were treating minor wounds and offering lunches.

"We see people coming off the train and they look shaken and nervous," said Chen Tzu-chong, a Tzu Chi team leader on site.

Taiwan's last major rail crash was in October 2018, when an express train derailed while rounding a tight corner on the northeast coast, killing at least 18 people and injuring nearly 200.

In 1991, a collision in western Taiwan killed 30 people and another crash a decade earlier also killed 30.

Those were said to be the worst previous crashes on the rail system that dates from the late 19th century.

Taiwan's extensive rail system has undergone substantial upgrades in recent years, particularly with the addition of a high-speed line connecting the capital Taipei with west-coast cities to the south.

The train involved in Friday's derailment, the Toroko 408, is one of Taiwan's newer models.

While residents in Sydney begin preparing for the Easter long weekend, some communities in the state's north are facing the prospect of a new virus outbreak.

Thieves have stolen containers of food set aside for an Easter feast from a Brisbane aged care home.

Residents of the Brassall Retirement and Aged Care home were already preparing to spend the Easter weekend alone in the wake of Brisbane's recent COVID-19 outbreak, as none of them have received the vaccine.

Now, they won't receive a home-cooked meal either.

READ MORE: Vaccine stoush heats up between state and federal governments

Security video shows a man help himself to the kitchen cabinet just after midnight on Thursday morning, stealing containers of food before being picked up by an accomplice.

He returned an hour later with his face covered and fills a suitcase with meat from the freezer.

A television in the communal area was also smashed.

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Owner Louisa Galagher told 9News that meals and special occasions were a highlight for residents.

"Food is important to them, entertainment is important to them," Ms Galagher said.

"Today we've got nothing.

"It's left them feeling stressed and insecure."

Ms Galagher said she had managed to buy food for the residents today but was worried about how she would feed them for the rest of the long weekend.

Health authorities in Queensland have released a list of venues visited by the case identified as the missing link in the state's recent spate of coronavirus cases in the community.

There were no new active community cases of coronavirus detected in Queensland in the past 24-hours, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed early today.

There was however one historical case: a Princess Alexandra Hospital nurse who worked with the same infected returned traveller who infected a doctor last month.

Seven new cases were also detected within the state's hotel quarantine program.

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The premier has described the discovery of the missing link between cases as "fantastic news".

Close contacts of the case include:

• KCF training gym in Birtina on March 22 from 9.15am to 11.30am
• Plus Fitness at Minyama on March 22 from 2.30pm to 3.30pm
• Plus Fitness at Minyama on March 23 from 7.30am to 8.30am

An extensive list of casual contact venues has also been released dating back to March 10 which includes gyms, grocery stores and pharmacies.

https://twitter.com/qldhealthnews/status/1377854891259961347

The nurse is believed to have acquired the virus some time ago and is no longer infectious.

"This is yet another nurse who has unfortunately – through doing nothing wrong – has contracted the infection, from a gentleman who is clearly a super spreader," Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young said.

"It's not his fault either. He was the gentleman who came from Europe and was admitted and transmitted the infection to a doctor.

"Now, he's also transmitted it to a nurse."

READ MORE: Hundreds flock to Sydney Fish Markets to stock up on Easter seafood

Queensland Health believes that the nurse, who resides in North Brisbane, then transmitted the infection to her partner, who spread the infection to his social network.

Dr Young said the nurse's partner came forward "out of the blue" to get tested, leading to the discovery of the missing chains of transmission.

The nurse didn't develop any coronavirus symptoms and was unaware she had been infected. She was only tested due to being a close contact of another case.

The PCR test, which tests for active virus in the body, came back negative but serology results proved she had had COVID-19.

"We'll never get virus that we can do a genome sequence on, but she's treated the same patient that the doctor who got infected treated," Dr Young said.

The nurse was never symptomatic, but Dr Jeanette Young said she has deemed her as infectious from March 10 – the day after she treated the infectious patient – through to March 23.

There are now 82 active cases in Queensland, with 35,357 COVID-19 tests conducted in the past 24-hours.

"That is truly incredible – great testing results," Ms Palaszczuk said.

READ MORE: Easter long weekend travel begins after Brisbane lockdown lifted

Dr Young commended the Queenslanders linked to the state's two current clusters, crediting their efforts as key in containing the further spread of the outbreaks.

"They have done everything absolutely wonderfully," she said.

"It has been an enormously successful process in terms of people coming forward and sharing information with us.

"People are so prepared to share their very close contact details with us, and where they've been, and that must be so hard for individuals."

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