http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/236823.htm

THAILAND
'Magical' 777 baby gets scholarship

Wed, 18 Jul 2007

A baby girl born on 7 July 2007 — 07/07/07 — in the back of a Thai taxi bearing the licence plate 7777 is to receive a scholarship worth 700 000 baht ($21 000), a college said on Wednesday.

The girl, who has not yet been named but received the nickname "Seven," is just days old, but the Panyapiwat Institution of Technology has promised her a bursary until she graduates.

"It is an unconditional scholarship that we gave to her because she was born on 7 July of the year 2007, and in a taxi with the licence plate 7777," said Ratana Prasertsom, the rector of the institute.

"And when the mother and girl checked in at the hospital, they were given room 707 on the seventh floor."

Thais place great faith in the mystical importance of numbers, and the succession of sevens in the baby's birth has been seen as deeply auspicious. Newspapers have devoted entire pages to the infant and her good fortune.

AFP