“In the next five years, we will be building up many new businesses in Thailand that show good potential and where we have expertise,” said Lee, whose family owns a majority stake in publicly listed Raimon Land.

His elder brother Lionel, who heads Singapore-based Ezra Holdings, is also backing Adrian in forging this new path that aims to double Raimon’s yearly revenue to Bt10 billion in a decade.

“We began our push into the Kingdom three years ago by acquiring about 25 per cent of Raimon Land, one of the best-known housing brands,” he said.

“Today, we are debt-free, very profitable, cash-rich and looking for new avenues to grow.”

The Lee family has steadily branched out into areas where they have an advantage. Adrian Lee himself has served as CEO for 10 years or more in many Singapore units that run hotels and restaurants.

He also sits in energy companies headed by Lionel Lee and is therefore strict about “balancing the books” and “showing healthy profitability to shareholders”.

“In Singapore, we had a successful run with Klapsons, our hospitality brand, which became quite a sensation in just a short time because of its personal hospitality service,” Adrian Lee said.

His family has close contacts with many of the island state’s movers and shakers.

“We were also successful in our Singapore food business. We are hoping to repeat this here with local partners,” Adrian Lee said.

The new food chain alone could be a billion-baht investment.

Adrian is convinced the best places to reinvest his family fortune are in the Kingdom and its neighbouring countries.

After studying conditions in Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, he concluded that Thailand showed better prospects.

Overall, the Thai market offers a more competitive environment and lower risks.

“The difference between Thailand and its neighbours is its huge middle class, Raimon’s key customer base.”

Over-speculation in land in many emerging markets has also raised the risks of collapse in these markets, he said.

Even Indonesia, once a favourite of big Thai groups, has proven more challenging than anticipated, incurring, at times, massive losses.

The next Thai project to be disclosed is a seaside hotel in the south of the country.

“It will be a three- to four-star hotel. We are avoiding luxury accommodations as they appear to be less popular with today’s travellers,” Adrian Lee said.

“Tourists are more price-conscious today and they want value. One of the most important facilities to provide today is good Wi-Fi.”

In producing food products for export, Adrian Lee’s plan is to offer a mix of Thai and other Asian cuisines.

Tourism and food units will contribute one-third of income in the next decade.

Another key new area is shopping and commercial spaces, Adrian Lee said.

Raimon recently revealed a Bt10-billion downtown shopping and office project on Phloenchit Road across from the Central Embassy mall.

Adrian Lee expects robust demand for well-located shopping centres and offices in Bangkok with proximity to mass transit stations. “As such we have acquired a 30-year lease at a six-rai plot on Phloenchit with a generous grace period that allows the lease to take effect after construction is completed,” he said.

“We expect to have about 115,000 square metres of commercial and retail space for rent.”

Condominiums will still make up a key part of the company.

“Our Asoke and Silom sites have been successful while older ones at Ekkamai and Ratchadamri are injecting cash,” Adrian Lee said.

“We will continue with residential ventures in new areas including housing estates if we can locate good plots.

This is a tough period for many developers and “having a huge inventory could be very risky”.

“When things change, you have to adapt and take new positions,” he said.

The downturn in oil businesses some years ago forced the family |to take private its Singapore firm Elect Energy and move capital elsewhere.

But tourism in Thailand is a bright spot for the Lee family.

“The airports are always packed with long delays, queues,” Adrian Lee said. “This is happening for years. That gives you an indication where demand is coming from.

“Tourism will continue to thrive and that attracts us as prudent business operators.”

Witnesses reported seeing a “wall of fire” and passengers with facial burns and hair coming off at Parsons Green station in west London after the explosion on the train.

“At 8:20 this morning at Parsons Green station there was an explosion on a Tube train. We now assess that this was a detonation of an improvised explosive device,” police counter-terror chief Mark Rowley said.

Rowley said most of the injuries were due to “flash burns”, while others were wounded by the stampede as passengers ran out of the station in panic.

Twitter user @Rrigs, who posted pictures of a white bucket smouldering on the train, said: “Explosion on Parsons Green District Line train. Fireball flew down carriage and we just jumped out open door”.

The bucket looked like the type used by builders and there appeared to be cables coming out of it.

– ‘Wall of fire’ –

One local resident, Charlie Craven, who was on his way to the station, said he heard a “massive bang”.

“I saw an orange sort of fireball encompassing the whole Tube coming towards you,” he told AFP.

Witness Lauren Hubbard described it as “a wall of fire”.

The National Health Service said 18 people were taken by ambulance to hospital, while four others made their own way to hospitals.

Police forensics officers works alongside an underground tube train at a platform at Parsons Green underground tube station in west London on September 15, 2017, following an incident on an underground tube carriage at the station. // AFP PHOTO

The London Ambulance Service said none of the victims “are thought to be in a serious or life-threatening condition”.

The MI5 intelligence service is assisting investigators and police said Londoners should expect extra security measures over the weekend.

“There is a manhunt under way as we speak,” Mayor of London Sadiq Khan told LBC radio.

He urged Londoners to remain “calm and vigilant”.

“As London has proven again and again, we will never be intimidated or defeated by terrorism,” he said.

Prime Minister Theresa May said her thoughts were with the injured and emergency services had responded “swiftly and bravely”.

She later chaired an emergency cabinet meeting.

 – ‘Sick and demented’ –

Armed police and sniffer dogs could be seen on the train and around the station, which is set in a leafy suburb of southwest London popular with well-off commuters and filled with chic cafes.

The station was closed, as well as an entire section of the District Line where it is located and police urged people to stay away from the area.

Local residents and businesses rallied together with businesses offering tea and the use of their toilets to people unable to get home.

The incident is the fifth terror attack in six months in Britain since March, when a lone attacker mowed down pedestrians and stabbed a police officer outside the British parliament.

US President Donald Trump said the attack was carried out by a “loser terrorist”.

“These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!” he said on Twitter, without explaining further.

“Loser terrorists must be dealt with in a much tougher manner. The internet is their main recruitment tool which we must cut off and use better,” he said.

– ‘Lots of screaming’ –

Passengers described chaotic scenes at the station in the normally quiet part of west London.

Louis Hather, 21, was travelling to work and was three carriages down from where the explosion took place.

“I could smell the burning. Like when you burn plastic,” he told AFP.

Hather saw a woman with burns being stretchered off.

He was trampled on as passengers stampeded out of the station and his leg was badly cut and bruised.

Sally Faulding, a 51-year-old teacher, said: “People were falling over each other.”

Richard Aylmer-Hall, 52, told the Press Association: “There was panic, lots of people shouting, screaming, lots of screaming”.

A total of 35 people have been killed in four previous attacks in London and Manchester this year.

Three of those involved a vehicle ploughing into pedestrians.

An injured woman is escorted by the emergency services away from ‘Parsons Green’ Underground Station in London, Britain, 15 September 2017.  // EPA-EFE

The other attack was a bombing in May at a pop concert by US star Ariana Grande in Manchester which killed 22 people including children.

Otso Iho, a senior analyst at Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, said the latest attack showed a “continued high intent but low capability” of the terrorism threat in Britain.

Hans Michels, a professor of chemical engineering at Imperial College, said the flash flame “suggests that the explosion was only partly successful”.

“Much of the bucket still seems to be intact and there appear to be no victims with lethal impact wounds,” he said.

Trees were torn down and local authorities cut power in some areas to avoid accidents as residents who remained in their homes hunkered down.

“The kids stayed at home and there’s not much in the markets. I bought enough instant noodles for the family, so I think we’re good,” Nghe An resident Nguyen Thi Hue, 58, told AFP.

The storm clocked 165 kilometre per hour (102 miles per hour) winds before it reached the coast Friday morning, according to the Hong Kong Observatory, which classified Doksuri as a “severe typhoon”.

One person died in Hue province when he was swept away in a river following heavy rains in the area, according to the local government’s website.

A three-year-old child was also injured after the roof blew off her house, the website added.

A woman rides a motorcycle across a bridge on a highway in the central province of Ha Tinh as Typhoon Doksuri makes landfall to the country’s central coast on September 15, 2017. // AFP PHOTO

More than 79,000 people were evacuated across four provinces expected to be hardest hit, the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority said. It earlier predicted the storm could be the worst to hit Vietnam in a decade.

Officials also ordered all boats and residents to stay onshore.

“The provinces are focusing on evacuating remaining households to ensure people’s safety,” Agriculture Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said on state-run Vietnam Television (VTV).

A man walks in heavy rain on a flooded street of Cua Lo, Nghe An, Vietnam, 15 September 2017.  // EPA-EFE

“We also need to encourage fishermen to leave their boats, it could be harmful to their lives,” he added.

The storm reached Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces Friday morning, according to VTV, with neighbouring Nghe An and Quang Tri provinces also expected to be battered.

Dozens of flights to the area were cancelled, and most schools were closed.

The Vietnam Red Cross Society said it was donating $45,000 and sending essential supplies to the area along with volunteers who were helping people leave their homes.

The government said Thursday it had 250,000 soldiers on standby along with a fleet of vehicles and boats at the ready.

Vietnam is routinely hit by tropical storms from around May to October, with its central coast most frequently affected.

The Southeast Asian nation has already been hit by severe weather this year, with 140 people dead or missing in natural disasters since January, according to official figures.

 Pedestrians and motorists make their way in a flooded street in Cua Lo, Nghe An, Vietnam, 15 September 2017. // EPA-EFE

London – Passengers were seen “badly burned” following a possible explosion on a London Underground train, eyewitnesses said on Friday, as emergency services said they were responding to an “incident”.

Witnesses reported seeing passengers who had suffered facial burns and had hair coming off, with at least two women seen being treated by medics amid scenes of panic during rush hour.

“Explosion on Parsons Green District Line train. Fireball flew down carriage and we just jumped out open door,” said Twitter user @Rrigs, who posted pictures of a white bucket smouldering on the train.

The bucket looked like the type used by builders and there appeared to be cables coming out of it.

An image taken from a user generated content uploaded on social networks on September 15, 2017, shows a white container burning inside a London Underground tube carriage. // AFP PHOTO

“We are aware of an incident at Parsons Green tube station. Officers are in attendance,” London’s Metropolitan Police said on Twitter.

The station was closed, as well as an entire section of the District Line where it is located and police urged people to stay away from the area.

A Metro.co.uk reporter at the scene was quoted by the paper as saying that some passengers were “really badly burned” and their “hair was coming off”.

The incident comes after a series of terror attacks that have rocked Britain this year, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds, putting the capital on high alert.

British Foreign Secretary and former London mayor Boris Johnson appealed for calm.

“I’m afraid my information is limited and it really is important not to speculate at the moment,” he told Sky News.

“Obviously, everybody should keep calm and go about their lives in a normal way, as normal as they possibly can,” he said.

 – ‘Covered in blood’ –

Passengers described chaotic scenes at the station in a leafy and normally quiet part of west London.

“There was panic, lots of people shouting, screaming, lots of screaming,” Richard Aylmer-Hall, 52, a media technology consultant, told the Press Association.

“There was a woman on the platform who said she had seen a bag, a flash and a bang, so obviously something had gone off,” he said, adding that “some people got pushed over and trampled on.

“I saw two women being treated by ambulance crews,” he said.

BBC correspondent Riz Lateef, who was on her way to work, said there was “panic as people rushed from the train, hearing what appeared to be an explosion.

“People were left with cuts and grazes from trying to flee the scene. There was lots of panic.”

One passenger, named only as Lucas, told BBC 5 Live radio: “I heard a really loud explosion”.

“I saw people with minor injuries, burnings to the face, arms, legs, multiple casualties,” he said.

Another witness, Sham, told the radio station he had seen a man with blood all over his face.

“There were a lot of people limping and covered in blood,” he said.

Emergency services said they were called at around 8:20 am (0720 GMT).

Natasha Wills, assistant director of operations at London Ambulance Service said: “Our initial priority is to assess the level and nature of injuries”.

She said the ambulance service had sent “multiple resources” to the station, including a hazardous area response team.//AFP

Affectionately called “Samantha” by co-creators Arran Squire and wife Hannah Nguyen, the sex robot was turned off for the duration of the interview on the TV show “This Morning” to prevent it from saying anything inappropriate.

During the interview, Squire explained how the sex robot and sex dolls help to spice things up in relationships. This was the case between him and his wife who thinks of Samantha as just another part of the family.

Squire continued that his children would often ask about Samantha as well, while knowing fully well the sex robot’s true purpose.

Apparently, Samantha has a “family mode” which allows her to be in the presence of children.

The hosts were visibly unnerved by the revelations, which prompted guest psychologist Emma Kenny to chime in.

She pointed out that by supporting sex dolls, and to a further extent, sex robots, people are commercializing the female body.

Kenny also stated that the presence of Samantha is damaging to the relationship between Squire and his family.

Meanwhile, Squire and his wife affirmed that sex dolls are not meant to replace humans.

In a joint statement issued after their meeting, the two leaders called for an end to the violence targeting civilian populations, and discussed the need for a strong international community response to the hundreds of thousands who have been victimised and displaced by violence, including those who have fled to Bangladesh.

Both leaders urged the Myanmar government to end the violence against innocents and ensure humanitarian relief reaches victims immediately.

“We wanted a strong statement on the Rohingya and we got it. We worked together with the White House and they were supportive of the statement,” he told the Malaysian media at the end of his three-day working visit to Washington on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister said the ongoing crisis was a humanitarian issue which should be the concern of all. “Even within Asean, as a community, what is happening to the Rohingya is an affront to the ideals and values that we should uphold. Within Asean, we have different opinions on how this should be dealt with. But we take the position that what is happening is totally unacceptable,” said Najib.

He explained that Malaysia was not interfering in the affairs of another country but when it impinges on the image, interest and security of other Asean countries, Kuala Lumpur was obliged to give its opinion and take whatever steps deemed appropriate.