Shawna Thomas is an NBC News producer on assignment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to cover a pre-trial military commission hearing for Omar Khadr.

Khadr is a Canadian citizen who is accused of murder and providing material support for terrorism along with other charges stemming from his alleged participation in a 2002 firefight with American troops in Afghanistan.

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – Did Omar Khadr not show up in court today because he felt humiliated or because he was in pain?

The second day of Khadr’s hearing was set to begin at 9 a.m. ET. It didn’t start until 10 a.m. and Khadr was not in the seat he had occupied the day before.

A captain was called to the stand to testify about Khadr’s whereabouts.

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Shawna Thomas is an NBC News producer on assignment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to cover a pre-trial military commission hearing for Omar Khadr.

Khadr is a Canadian citizen who is accused of murder and providing material support for terrorism along with other charges stemming from his alleged participation in a 2002 firefight with American troops in Afghanistan.

Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured in 2002 and is expected to stand trial at Guantanamo Bay in July of this year. His military trial would be the first governed by the 2009 Military Commissions Act that was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009.

Thomas is one of 37 print and television journalists from across the world covering Khadr’s proceedings. 

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – At the end of Recreation Road in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are at least three detention facilities known as Camps 4, 5 and 6. The media is prohibited from visiting Camp 7, a maximum-security facility, and Camps 1, 2 and 3 are not in use.

Earlier this week, we were given a tour of Camp 4, where Omar Khadr is being held. We also got a tour of Camp 6.

SLIDESHOW: Life goes on in Guantanamo

Camp placement depends on the detainees’ level of compliance. Detainees are neither bad nor good, but compliant and non-compliant. Camp 4 is for the most compliant detainees.

But no matter how compliant detainees are, the prevailing image is of the leg restraints, which are found in all of the empty classrooms and communal locations. A guard explained that the leg restraints are for the protection of the guards.

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LONDON – So after the live microphone captures Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s blunder, the live cameras see him turn up at the lady’s door to apologize only hours later.

He is, Brown told the massed media through an uncomfortable smile, a “penitent sinner.”

He had misunderstood what she was saying. Sometimes, he said, you say things you don’t mean.

Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters

Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown leaves the home of Gillian Duffy in Rochdale, northwest England, on Wednesday after apologizing for calling her ”a bigoted woman.”

Damage limitation, or damage exploitation?

Making things better – or worse?

The opinion polls will tell us – in a matter of hours.

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