European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 27, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 a the stars and stripes Friday March 27, 1992thai Leader despite drug from wire reports Bangkok Thailand a Thailand a largest Pany stood firm behind Leader Narong Wong an As the country s next prime minister thursday rejecting . State department allegations that he was refused a visa because of involvement in narcotics. Quot the news Media should be fair that accusation of connections to drug trafficking was probably a political tactic. No evidence was produced Quot said Suchat Tan Charoen spokesman of the Justice Unity party. Suchat said the party along with its four intended coalition partners would continue to support Narong for prime minister because he was the Leader of the party that won the most seats in sundays general elections. . State department spokeswoman Margaret Tut Wiler said wednesday that Narong was denied a visa in july 1991 under Section a 2c of the immigration act. That Section states that anyone believed to have been a drug trafficker or a conspirator with traffickers May not be allowed into the United states. The Justice Unity party spokesman said Narong denied he had been refused a . Visa for any reason and insisted he still had a valid . Visa in his passport. Narong however did not appear at Suchatz a news conference and his spokesman said he did not know his whereabouts. A smooth return shaky russian cosmonaut Sergei Krika tev is helped out of his spacecraft wednesday at Arkalyn Kazakhstan after spending 10 eerie months at the space station Mir. Accompanying him on the return to Earth was fellow russian Alexander Volkov and a German test Pilot Klaus Dietrich Flade. Veteran cosmonaut Volkov told reporters a of my three landings this was the , allegations a recent opinion poll of thai academicians business executives and other professionals in the English language newspaper the nation found that Only 0.3 percent of respondents wanted Narong to be prime minister. _ ,. A Narong is not very popular at All a said a thai civil servant no asked not to be identified. A two Days ago no one would have predicted that he would become prime minister. He has no  what Narong has is a sizable business Empire of Timber tobacco Coffee and mining companies most of them based in Northern Thailand. Some of Narong a alleged business dealings have run him afoul of the . Drug enforcement Agency which sources said blocked his visa application for a visit soon after the coup last year. Suchat said that if Narong had been guilty of narcotics offences he would have been arrested by thai authorities. A we done to know whether they the state department Are working with any particular political party in this trick Quot Suchat said. A there might be something in  earlier Chavalit Yod Manee head of the narcotics control Board said the allegations May have Arisen because some people associated with Narong were involved in narcotics but that he knew of no evidence against Narong himself. Germans Back stricter curbs on child porn Bonn Germany up a Chancellor Helmut Kohls Cabinet wednesday passed a draft Bill to tighten Laws against child pornography in what the Justice minister said was a decision aimed at protecting children from the perversions of adults. For the first time the Bill makes Possession of child pornography a crime which will carry a maximum penalty of one years imprisonment. Production and distribution of such pornography will carry a maximum penalty of three years a or five years if the material is produced in commercial quantities. A the Federal government has declared War on child pornography a Justice minister Klaus Kincl said after the draft Bill was passed by the Cabinet. A children Are the weakest members of our society. We must protect them from the perversions of adults a he said. He said that 12,741 cases of sexual abuse of children were reported to the police in 1990, but that Only 7,649 could be solved. Women and youth affairs minister Angela Merckel welcomed the decision to punish Possession of child pornography saying that a was Long As there is a Market for this there will always be producers who will carry out their smutty business for a lucrative  kinked said he will soon present a further Bill a to combat child sex  under the plan a German citizen could be tried by a German court for having sexual with a child under the age of 14 in another country even if it is not an offence under that country a Laws. Experts have said that such a Law would be hard to apply because of the difficulty involved in bringing witnesses to Germany. The proposed legislation largely Aims at helping combat sexual abuse of children in developing countries including Thailand and the Philippines which Are reputed to be popular destinations for German a sex  Laos releases remains of 2 pilots Bangkok Thailand up officials in Laos have handed Over to . Authorities the remains of two american pilots killed during the Vietnam War state run Vientiane radio said. It said the remains were discovered in Graves in Northern Xieng Phouang province along with some personal effects including . Air Force insignia toys towels and a pistol. Deputy lao foreign minister Souban Salit Thill handed Over the remains to . Charg6 d affaires Charles Salmon at a ceremony wednesday at Vientiane Airport said the broadcast the text of which was made available in Bangkok on thursday. The radio said it was the third such return of remains believed to be those of missing american servicemen Bers. A total of 2,267 american service members Are listed As missing in Indochina since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, More than 500 of them in Laos. The communist government in Vientiane agreed earlier this month to allow . Helicopters to search for the missing service members in the rugged Hills of  releases prisoners to Mark religious Holiday from wire reports Cairo Egypt a president Hosni Mubarak ordered the release of 3,500 prisoners to Mark the end of Ramadan the Muslim month of fasting egyptian newspapers quoted a government decree As saying. The decree signed by Mubarak did not say however whether political prisoners such As Muslim extremists will be among those freed. Wednesdays reports on the decree said it would allow the release of prisoners who have served two thirds of their terms and displayed Good  to be filed Paris a the French government says it plans to file a complaint against a group of do goobers who damaged ancient Cave drawings in their Zeal to clean up Graffiti a whatever their Good intentions which is not in doubt this negligence and carelessness must be noted a the culture ministry said wednesday. The ministry said it was filing the civil complaint against a protestant youth group for the destruction or degradation of archaeological treasures. Tie group risks a Fine. On March 15, members of the Ecla Reurs de France group got carried away in their Mission to clean up a Comer of Southwest France scrubbing with steel brushes two 15,000-year-old paintings of Bison in the Grotto of  rescues sailors Kuala Bumpur a thirteen sailors were rescued wednesday by a malaysian Royal air Force helicopter from the cargo ship . Brighton which Sank near the East malaysian state of Sarawak the National news Agency Ber Nama reported. The nine burmese and four indonesian sailors were picked up from two dinghies and flown to the nearest Hospital for observation a Rescue operation spokesman  vets Honor dead Colombo sri Lanka a a group of 150 War veterans on wednesday prayed and Laid wreaths at the Graves of friends and colleagues who were killed in sri Lanka during world War ii. The old soldiers of Britain Canada Australia and the Netherlands arrived monday on a two week visit to commemorate the first bombing of the Island nation by the japanese air Force 50 years ago. The cemetery in Colombo contains the Graves of 603 service men and women of British and Allied forces. On april 5, the Day of the 50th anniversary the sex soldiers will unveil a War memorial at the Southern town of Kog gala once the site of a Royal air Force base.2 charged in smuggling Bangkok a authorities have arrested two american women on charges of attempting to smuggle heroin to the United states customs officials said wednesday. Officials said the suspects Are Rachel Lee Perez and Paulina Vilma Del Carmen. The heroin involved in the Case has a . Street value of almost $300,000.Italy bans Travolta to ads Rome a Italy a state run television has banned a Mineral water commercial featuring j in Erica film Star John Travolta because of possible political overtones a watchdog Agency said wednesday. In the commercial Travolta states that Italy has As Many political parties As it has Mineral water companies and suggests italians should a choose  it was scheduled to be aired april 2, just three Days before general elections. Massimo Modesti a spokesman for sac1s, the Agency that regulates advertisement said ads appearing on Public television channels cannot have any political Content