WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department has been asked by the CIA to probe whether a former agency officer acted illegally in describing the waterboarding of a prisoner.

Officials said the agency asked the department to investigate whether former officer John Kiriakou illegally revealed classified data when he gave media interviews describing the capture and interrogation -- including waterboarding -- of al-Qaida terrorism suspect Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported Friday.

Kiriakou said during interviews with the Post and other organizations that the prisoner resisted interrogation until he was subjected to the controversial technique, which simulates drowning.

The former agent's lawyer, Mark Zaid, said the CIA commonly asks the Justice Department to open similar investigations but criminal charges are rarely filed as a result.

The CIA's request comes amid ongoing controversy over the agency's destruction of videotaped interrogations featuring Hussein, who is commonly known as Abu Zubaida, and another prisoner. The Justice Department and CIA inspector general opened a preliminary inquiry into the purging after the CIA revealed the tapes were destroyed in 2005.

At least 50 dead in Pakistan mosque blast

LAHORE, Pakistan, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Pakistani officials said a suicide bomber's assassination attempt on a former official killed at least 50 people in a crowded mosque in the city of Lahore.

The officials said an another 80 people were injured, including the son and two grandnephews of former Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Friday.

Sherapao, whom officials said was the target of the blast, was unharmed. The suicide bombing marked the second attempt on the former law enforcement official's life in eight months.

Sherapao told the Times that he believed the explosion took place in the third or fourth row of worshipers during services for Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha.

"It was a massacre," he said. "I can tell you that."

CNN reported the attack was the country's deadliest since an Oct. 18 suicide bombing targeting the convoy of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto killed 136 people in Karachi.

Japan suspends humpback whaling

TOKYO, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A top Japanese government official said the country is suspending humpback whaling during reform talks at the International Whaling Commission.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Japan decided to halt the hunting of the aquatic mammals after IWC Chairman William Hogarth suggested the practice be suspended for one or two years while the IWC has reform discussions, Kyodo News reported Friday.

''We will not change the plan to conduct research whaling itself. But the government has decided that, as long as the normalization process is under way, we will postpone humpback whaling,'' Machimura said.

Japan, which is currently serving as vice chair of the whaling commission, halted commercial whaling after the IWC issued a moratorium in 1986, but began hunting whales again the following year, claiming the practice was part of scientific research.

Nagin lauds demolition vote

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin welcomed a city council vote approving the demolition of four major public housing developments to make way for new residences.

Nagin said at a news conference after the 7-0 vote Thursday night to demolish developments at B.W. Cooper, St. Bernard, Lafitte and C.J. Peete that city officials will use the permits that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Housing Authority of New Orleans must now apply for to ensure that the conditions of the council's resolution are met, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

"The decisions made today were ones of compassion, courage and commitment to this city," Nagin said. "This is an incredible day. You heard lots of pain today. The City Council in its wisdom has come up with a solution that will allow us to move forward, to hold HUD accountable."

Council President Arnie Fielkow said the resolution paves the way for the transformation of the run-down developments into modern housing, the Times-Picayune reported.

"We have the opportunity to make our home a place that all New Orleanians can point to with pride," Fielkow said. "It's my hope that the word 'project' will never again be used in place of what should be 'transitional homes.' Every citizen deserves a safe and affordable place to raise a family."

1-in-75 chance of asteroid hitting Mars

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif., Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Scientists with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration said an asteroid has a good chance of colliding with Mars near the end of January.

Researchers with NASA's Near-Earth Object Program in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., said the asteroid has about a 1-in-75 chance of hitting the fourth planet from the sun on Jan. 30, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

The 1-in-75 shot is "wildly unusual," said astronomer Steve Chesley with the Near-Earth Object office, which has been tracking the asteroid since it was sighted in November.

"We're used to dealing with odds like one-in-a-million," Chesley said. "Something with a one-in-a-hundred chance makes us sit up straight in our chairs."

Asteroid 2007 WD5 measures about 160 feet across, a comparable size to the asteroid that flattened Siberian forests in 1908, the scientists said.

However, the asteroid that hit Siberia was broken up by the earth's atmosphere before impact, while 2007 WD5 would likely fall directly to the surface of Mars, leaving a half-mile-wide crater at the place of impact.

"Normally, we're rooting against the asteroid," when Earth is the target, Chesley said. "This time we're rooting for the asteroid to hit."