July 21, 1984

President Reagan said today that Laos had agreed to allow United States officials to excavate a site to search for the remains of 13 American servicemen whose plane crashed there nearly 12 years ago. Mr. Reagan made the disclosure during a ceremony at the White House in honor of National P.O.W./M.I.A. Recognition Day. At the ceremony, the President said the Administration was determined to recover the remains and press for information on 2,489 Americans unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, as well as 8,177 from the Korean War. About 600 of the 2,489 were reported dead or missing in Laos. The Vientiane Government met with American officials last year and allowed a technical team to visit the crash site, near the city of Pakse.

Officials of the Miss America Pageant voted unanimously today to ask the reigning queen, Vanessa Williams, to resign, after they learned that she had posed for nude pictures before her selection for the title. The pictures will be published in the September issue of Penthouse magazine. Albert A. Marks Jr., executive director of the pageant, said at a news conference here that the committee had decided it had no choice but to recall her crown. For her to ''remain as Miss America would seriously jeopardize and irrevocably damage the entire Miss America Pageant program,'' he said. He said she would have 72 hours to decide whether to resign. Her lawyer told pageant officials that Miss Williams would announce her decision at a news conference on Monday, Mr. Marks said.

Laos agreed to allow U.S. officials to excavate a site to search for the remains of 13 American servicemen whose plane crashed there nearly 12 years ago, President Reagan said. Mr. Reagan made the announcement at a White House ceremony observing National P.O.W./M.I.A. Recognition Day. He affirmed his Administration's determination to recover the remains and press for information on 2,489 Americans unaccounted for from the Vietnam War and 8,177 from the Korean War. (Page 1, Column 4.) Relatives of missing Guatamalans have started to band together in an effort to find their relatives and end the many unsolved disappearances. Such organizations have long been active in other Latin American countries where kidnapping has beome a favorite way of disposing of real or imagined enemies. (2:1.)

The wife of one of Mexico's wealthiest citizens was kidnapped at gunpoint Thursday night from the Sheraton-Washington Hotel, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said today. The woman, Edith Rosenkranz, was in the hotel to play in a national bridge championship with her husband, George, who founded the Syntex Corporation and helped develop the first birth-control pill. Officials of the F.B.I. and the Washington police refused to say whether a ransom demand had been received. Mr. Rosenkranz was not available for comment. (A woman answering the phone at the Rosenkranz residence in Mexico City and identifying herself as a relative said the family had not received a ransom demand, United Press International reported.)

The two-year drought that has caused a loss estimated at $1 billion to Texas farmers and ranchers is now drying up the state's cities and crippling vacation resorts. Sixty-seven cities, including San Antonio, the state's third largest, and Austin, the capital, have imposed voluntary or mandatory restrictions on the use of municipal water. At resorts along fresh-water streams and lakes, tourist business is as low as the water levels. The drought in Texas threatens to become the worst since the 1950's. Lakes, reservoirs and aquifers across the center of the state are far below normal, and by this week 67 cities had imposed voluntary or mandatory restrictions on the use of municipal water.