National Front

The National Assembly today approved a bill that would bar anyone who provokes racial hatred or violence from holding elected office and government jobs for five years. The legislation, aimed at the extreme-right National Front Party, was passed by the Assembly 307 to 265 after an all-night debate and now goes to the Senate, where it can be revised before being returned to the lower house. It must be signed by President Francois Mitterrand to become law.

President Ion Iliescu agreed to further talks with opposition parties as the biggest demonstration since the overthrow of Communist rule five weeks ago drew to a close Sunday night. The slim concession was wrung from the interim government amid tumultuous scenes as rival groups besieged and defended National Salvation Front headquarters in the Foreign Ministry in Victory Square. As midnight approached, about 10,000 chanting people were still massed outside the headquarters of the ruling front.

The National Salvation Front, embattled and at times obviously confused, has been trying to maintain its credibility with the public and restore Romania's links with the mainstream community of European nations from which it has been cut off for nearly a generation. It has been a halting and difficult process, as events of the past few days have demonstrated. Stepping unprepared into a world of violence and dislocation after the overthrow of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu on Dec.

The National Salvation Front, which declared itself Romania's new leadership after the collapse of Nicolae Ceausescu's regime, is believed to have about 40 members. They include a number of politicians and dissident artists and intellectuals. It is not clear who is the top leader. Following are profiles of some prominent members: Corneliu Manescu, 73, originally announced as leader of the front, is a former foreign minister and former president of the U.N. General Assembly.

Opposition politicians said Thursday they had cleared the way for one of their leaders to become India's next prime minister. The National Front's Parliament members were scheduled to meet today to officially elect Vishwanath Pratap Singh head of the five-party National Front coalition. He then will probably be asked by the president to serve as prime minister.

A cold front moving through the nation's midsection brought scattered rain showers to the central plains and upper Mississippi Valley after earlier dusting parts of Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado with light snow. Elsewhere, low temperature records were broken or tied in West Virginia and a gale warning was posted in Virginia and North Carolina.

An arctic front struck the northern Plains, dropping the wind chill factor to 50 below zero, while up to 4 1/2 feet of snow fell on the central Rockies, closing schools and government offices. The wintry blast pushed temperatures below zero from Montana to Minnesota, while heavy snow warnings were posted for much of southwest and central Colorado, where 4 1/2 feet of snow was reported outside Rye, 4 feet outside Gardner and 20 inches at Colorado City.

The leader and three associates of an extreme rightist group were identified Monday as the victims of a bomb that apparently exploded prematurely in their car as they drove into an Arab neighborhood here, police said. Investigators said one of the victims was Claude Noblia, 43, the leader of S.O.S. France, an extreme right-wing group based in Toulon. The others were identified as Yvon Ricard, Raymond Segara and Henri Bahri, who were in Noblia's car at about 1 a.m.

Jean-Marie Le Pen and his extreme right-wing National Front smarted under the embarrassment Monday of accusations that one of the party's deputies to the European Parliament is an intelligence agent for Romania. In the last year, Le Pen has managed to survive a series of embarrassments that analysts thought might undermine his political standing.