3 children, 1 adult drown in Guyana after Hindu rite

Three children and an adult drowned in waters off western Guyana after performing a Hindu ritual for a dead relative.
Police said today that Radika Persaud, her teenage son, a young nephew and a niece perished while swimming in the choppy Atlantic off a coastline in the country's Essequibo region.
Authorities say the relatives had just participated in a religious ceremony on the beach marking the one-year anniversary of a loved one's death. Local Hindu families regularly gather at the beach in western Guyana for observances.
Guyana is a mostly rural country on South America's northeastern shoulder. It is divided politically and ethnically between the descendants of people brought from Africa as slaves and the descendants of people brought as indentured workers from India, both Hindus and Muslims.