Ousted Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra speaks at the first hearing of impeachment proceedings by the military-stacked National Legislative Assembly., AFP PHOTOBANGKOK: Ousted Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra launched a defiant defense on Friday at the first hearing of impeachment proceedings that could see her banned from politics for five years and deepen the country's bitter divisions. Yingluck, Thailand's first female premier and the sister of self-exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, was dumped from office by a controversial court ruling shortly before the army seized power in a coup on May 22. She faces impeachment by the military-stacked National Legislative Assembly over her administration's loss-making rice subsidy program which cost billions of dollars and was a driving force behind protests that toppled her government.
