Senegalese scientist develops Islamic inheritance software Regional, Business, 12/16/2000 Cheikh Bamba Dioum, a computer scientist at the Senegalese Oil Seed Marketing Company (SONACOS), has developed "Defi Heritage," a software for the management of inheritance according to the rules of Islam, reports panafrican news agency PANA. The invention, the fruit of four years of work, is not yet well known, as Dioum does not have the means to multiply the transmission supports for his program. The principle of this inheritance system is also synthesized in a book published in 100,000 copies used as support to the software. The computer programe makes it possible to solve the thorny inheritance problems in Muslim societies, although inheritance is explained detail by the Koran. Dioum explained that his software, aimed at Islamic institutions, mosques, lawyers and notaries, is easy to use. Defi Heritage only requires a certain number of information to be fed into the forms, notably the various types of relations, close or remote relatives, and the amount inherited. Once the data are processed, each heir is given a share of the inheritance, to the last penny. The software simplifies rather complex computations which, in Muslim families, are usually made by scholars, sometimes with disagreements and errors. Dioum, who registered his invention at the Senegalese Copyrights Board, plans to contact the national chapter of the African Intellectual Property Organization for a grant in order to make Defi Heritage more accessible. "Up to now, I have been a lone researcher, very isolated from the scientific world. This is not helping my efforts just as of now," he told PANA. Previous Stories: Arab businessmen discuss in Tunis increasing commercial exchange 10/6/2000 Abdul Meguid confers with chairperson of Arab business women council 10/2/2000 4 French, Canadian and U.S cinematic companies compete to establish cinema theaters in the Arab states 9/ _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------