An earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale jolted the town of Dasht-e Kavir in Iran’s northeastern province of Semnan on Friday.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to visit the United Arab Emirates May 13, 2007 on the first visit by an Iranian head of state to this Persian Gulf littoral state since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Senior diplomats representing the United Nations Security Council and Germany agreed yesterday to resume negotiations with Iran in a bid to persuade it to stop its uranium enrichment program.