PETALUMA, Calif. — Martha is big, ugly, lazy and gassy. And a world champion.

In a competition annually dominated by the old, the tiny and the hairless, the 3-year-old, 125-pound Neapolitan Mastiff used her lollygagging youth to win the 29th annual World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.

She was a favorite of the crowd from the start Friday night, often plopping down on her side on stage with her droopy face spread across the ground when she was supposed to be showing off.

“Do you know you just won the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest?” asked Kerry Sanders of NBC News, one of three judges who gave Martha the crown. Her handler Shirley Zindler answered for her: “I’d gloat, but I need a nap.”

Martha lumbered away with $1,500, a trophy and a trip to New York.

The dog, from Sebastopol, Calif., was rescued when she was nearly blind from neglect by the Dogwood Animal Rescue Project in Sonoma County, where the contest was held. After several surgeries, she can see again, Zindler said.

The only animal in this year’s contest too big to be held by her handler, Martha beat out 13 other dogs.

Moe, a 16-year-old Brussels Griffon-pug mix from Santa Rosa, Calif., came in second. Chase, a 14-year-old Chinese Crested-Harke mix from Neath, United Kingdom, placed third.

The contestants were judged on first impressions, unusual attributes, personality and audience reaction.

Many of the contestants

— some with acne, others with tongues permanently sticking out — are used to getting called ugly.

But for their owners, it was love at first sight. “He’s my sexy boy,” Vicky Adler, of Davis, Calif., said of her 8-year-old Chinese Crested named Zoomer.

CIA chief says intel disclosures on rise, cites leaker ‘worship’

WASHINGTON — CIA Director Mike Pompeo says he thinks disclosure of America’s secret intel is on the rise, fueled partly by the “worship” of leakers like Edward Snowden.

“In some ways, I do think it’s accelerated,” Pompeo told MSNBC in an interview that aired Saturday. “I think there is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden, and those who steal American secrets for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or money or for whatever their motivation may be, does seem to be on the increase.”

Pompeo said the U.S. needs to redouble its efforts to stem leaks of classified information.

Besides Snowden, who leaked data revealing U.S. government surveillance, WikiLeaks recently released nearly 8,000 documents that it says reveal secrets about the CIA’s cyberespionage tools for breaking into computers.

Britain finds 34 high-rises with unsafe siding, authorities say

LONDON — Britain’s fire-safety crisis expanded substantially Saturday as authorities said 34 high-rise apartment blocks across the country had cladding that failed fire safety tests.

London officials scrambled to evacuate four public housing towers after experts found them “not safe for people to sleep in overnight.”

The evacuation comes amid widening worries about the safety of high-rise apartment blocks across the country following the inferno that engulfed Grenfell Tower in west London on June 14, killing at least 79 people.

Attention has focused on the 24-story tower’s external cladding material, which has been blamed for the rapid spread of that blaze, but multiple other fire risks have now been identified in some housing blocks.

Al Capone song, pocket watch fetch over $103,00 at auction

BOSTON — Artifacts connected to some of the nation’s most notorious gangsters have sold for more than $140,000 at an auction house.

The Boston-based RR Auction says a diamond pocket watch that belonged to Al Capone fetched the most— $84,375 —at the auction Saturday in Cambridge, Mass. A handwritten musical composition by Capone went for $18,750.

The musical piece, “Humoresque,” shows Capone’s softer side. Written when Capone was in Alcatraz in the 1930s, it contains the lines: “You thrill and fill this heart of mine, with gladness like a soothing symphony, over the air, you gently float, and in my soul, you strike a note.”

An autographed “So Long” letter from Bonnie and Clyde sold for $16,250. Bonnie Parker’s snake ring fetched $25,000.

Egypt’s el-Sissi ratifies disputed Saudi islands pact

CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi ratified a disputed 2016 agreement under which his country would transfer control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

The ratification followed the June 14 approval of the agreement by parliament, despite court rulings to annul the transfer.

Critics say the islands were transferred in exchange for billions of dollars of Saudi aid. The government insists it would never cede Egyptian territory to anyone.

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca as police disrupted a plot to target the holiest site in Islam just as the fasting month of Ramadan ends, security forces said.

The blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces, according to the Interior Ministry’s statement.

Syria frees scores of detainees ahead of Eid

DAMASCUS, Syria — The Syrian government released hundreds of detainees Saturday, including some who backed the insurgency against President Bashar Assad on the eve of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.

Hours after the release, a car bomb exploded in a rebel-held northern town near the border with Turkey, killing and wounding dozens of people, according to the Syria Civil Defense in Idlib, a volunteer group also known as the White Helmets, and the Britain-based opposition monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The explosion at a market in Dana killed at least 10 people, including children, and wounded 30, according to the Observatory.

The blast came hours after an explosion in the town killed two people and wounded others.

Turkish authorities said Saturday they will not allow the Istanbul Pride march to take place Sunday, the third year in a row the celebration has been banned. Pride organizers said they would defy the ban. Istanbul Pride is one of the largest gatherings celebrating gay, lesbian and transgender rights in the Muslim world.

The death toll from twin blasts in the northwestern town of Parachinar climbed to 67 Saturday, bringing the overall toll from three attacks in Pakistan to 85, with several others in critical condition, officials said. Residents who had been preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan and Eid feast are now in mourning.