HOUSTON — The seven-man crew of the shuttle Endeavour maneuvered toward the international space station early today, with the astronauts spending their first full day in orbit carefully examining the ship for any launch damage.

Endeavour was set to dock with the station late today to deliver a giant robot and the first piece of a new Japanese lab. As the shuttle closed in on the orbiting outpost, the crew used a 100-foot laser-tipped boom to inspect its wings and nose for any sign of damage. The inspection has been standard procedure since the 2003 Columbia disaster, in which seven astronauts died.

Flight director Mike Moses said a quick look at the images the astronauts beamed down to Earth revealed no signs of trouble, but engineers will spend today poring over the data.

Cameras captured a possible strike to Endeavour's nose 10 seconds after liftoff, but Moses said he wasn't worried because the ship wasn't traveling fast enough at that time to sustain serious damage.

He said it was too early to tell whether the material came off the ship and whether or not it actually struck the shuttle. Engineers will analyze video captured during launch to try to answer those questions.

Additionally, a significant piece of foam or other debris came off Endeavour's tank just over a minute into the flight. It appeared to miss the right wing.

In addition to performing the inspection, the astronauts also prepared their spacesuits for the five spacewalks they plan to perform and gathered the tools they'll need for the rendezvous.

BAGHDAD — Violence appeared to be on the rise in Iraq after a day that saw at least 42 people die — numbers that cast doubt on the easing of sectarian violence following a surge of U.S. forces to the country last year.An Iraqi official confirmed the grisliest attack of Tuesday when 16 passengers on a bus in southern Iraq were killed by a roadside bomb. The U.S. military, however, claimed no one died in the attack, which was targeting a passing military convoy. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.Dr. Hadi Badr al-Riyahi, head of the Nasiriyah provincial health directorate, confirmed today that the attack on the bus traveling from Najaf to Basra killed 16 civilians and wounded 20.At the time, a local policeman and the assistant bus driver also said 16 people were killed.But Maj. Brad Leighton, a military spokesman, disputed that claim, saying that only one coalition soldier and one Iraqi civilian were wounded. At least 26 people were killed Tuesday in other violence around the country. The spike comes in the wake of a 60 percent drop in attacks across the country since June, according to U.S. military figures.According to an Associated Press count, at the height of unrest from November 2006 to August 2007, on average about 65 Iraqis died each day as a result of violence. As conditions improved, the daily death toll steadily declined. It reached its lowest point in more than two years in January, when on average 20 Iraqis died each day.