De Lappe has traveled the world over the decades working on the Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers masterpiece in places across Europe, Japan, Canada and the United States. Now she's in Chicago, trying to help director Gary Griffin recreate a version of the original "Oklahoma!" production. It opens on Saturday and runs through May 19.

"If you remain true to the script and to the music it's not old fashioned at all," de Lappe said in an interview in the rehearsal room at the Lyric Opera in downtown Chicago. "It's new. It was new then and it's new now."

Griffin calls de Lappe a link to the original intent of the production, which is often considered a landmark of American musical theater. He encourages her to talk about every number, every idea that she has during rehearsals.

"This show begins and you can see she feels the depth of what's contained in all of it and recall it and gives it to all of us," Griffin said. "Having her being able to fill in those gaps and information is incredible."

The original dances from "Oklahoma!" were crafted by famed choreographer Agnes DeMille, who often used de Lappe as an inspiration. De Lappe, who lives in New York, has actively worked for years to save de Mille's work.

Rodgers, Hammerstein and DeMille would often check up on productions of "Oklahoma!" to see if directors were departing too far from the original show, de Lappe said.

"They'd clean it up again, simplify it, make it ours," de Lappe said. "That's what I've dedicated my life to."

De Lappe, who was awarded the Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre in 2007, knew Rodgers and Hammerstein well, she said, even sitting in on musical sessions with Rodgers in London.

"I really learned what he wanted with all those songs, the pronunciation, the enunciation, the tempos, phrasing," de Lappe said.

Ted Chapin, president of the company that owns the rights to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Rodgers and Hammerstein: An Imagem Company, said the Lyric chose to honor the original choreographic essence of "Oklahoma!" when it hired de Lappe.

"She's very, very straight forward about what she knows and what she demands," Chapin said. "She's not going to sit back and just take notes."

De Lappe's eyes dart from dancer to dancer when she's in those rehearsals, with an intense stare observing each number. She will stop the dancers, directing them about the need to swoop in a certain way or interact with each other differently. At times she will even demonstrate the steps.

"When I hear it with the performers and with the show I'm just as enthusiastic as I was the first time I saw the show," she said.

Modern audiences haven't seen a proper production of "Oklahoma!" for two generations, de Lappe said. She said that's why it's important for Lyric to recreate the show's original concept.

The production is the first of five classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals that the Lyric is staging as part of its American Musical Theater Initiative. "The Sound of Music" is planned for next year, followed by "Carousel" in 2015, "The King and I" in 2016 and "South Pacific" in 2017.

The Chicago production of "Oklahoma!" includes 37 members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra and a company of nearly 40 actors.

"The minute you walk into the rehearsal hall and you start, the energy is there no matter how tired you are," de Lappe said. "I find it happens to me every day."

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Online: http://www.lyricopera.org/oklahoma

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Follow Caryn Rousseau on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/carynrousseau

Created by U.S. President Barack Obama, the online petitioning system was designed as an "easy way for Americans to make their voices heard", according to the website. But he may have underestimated its global appeal in the internet age.

"We request that the U.S. government make sweet the official flavour of jellied tofu, namely through the addition of syrup, granulated or brown sugar or other sweeteners," said one petition, written in Chinese, on the site.

Video: China netizens bring old mystery to White House: http://link.reuters.com/xus87t

The number of signatures for the appeal created on Tuesday was steadily climbing. As of Wednesday morning, it had received more than 1,000 digital endorsements.

That falls far short of the 100,000 signatures needed to merit a response from the Obama administration, a threshold the government has reserved the right to adjust.

There is a regional divide in China on how jellied tofu should be consumed, with a slightly sweetened variety enjoyed in many parts of the south and a saltier style common in the north.

"Send troops to liberate the Chinese people," reads another petition, this one with more than 3,500 signatures.

Part protest, part entreaty, petitioning has deep roots in China, a country where courts are seen as beyond the reach of ordinary people or beholden to officials. Many seek redress for land seizures, factory layoffs, or medical and police disputes.

But doing so in China can be a risky affair, often leading to detention in secret facilities dubbed black jails.

The China-related requests appeared alongside pleas for Obama to reduce gun violence and increase the budget for NASA, the U.S. space agency, and not all were funny.

One called for the United States to extradite a suspect in the 1994 poisoning of Chinese graduate student Zhu Ling. It received 134,000 signatures in five days.

(Reporting by Michael Martina and Sally Huang; Editing by Elaine Lies)

And on Sunday, the first Hispanic justice on the nation's highest court explained why, saying "you can't come from the world I grew up in, the South Bronx, without feeling the frenzy of exile, constantly."

She spoke at Cooper Union, a private college in Manhattan's East Village where Abraham Lincoln once gave a speech against slavery.

The justice said she wasn't "doing press" on an evening in her hometown that ended with hugs from some members of the audience who asked her to sign their copies of her memoir, "My Beloved World."The best-selling book was published earlier this year with what she called Sunday "some baring of my own heart."

She spoke on the closing night of the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature in New York City, which included her conversation with scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.

It was hardly a private event.

With a wry smile, Sotomayor said she recognized that "it seems pointless today to exclude the press from any event, when any member of the audience can tweet quotations."

This year's festival has focused on looking at the idea of bravery in art and politics.

The judge's speech came as she and fellow Supreme Court justices are considering three issues dividing the nation: affirmative action, voting rights and gay marriage.

Sotomayor was careful not to reveal her personal opinions, though she conceded that "it is impossible for a homosexual couple today not to be affected by the DOMA and Proposition 8 cases in some way," adding to laughter, "just so you're all clear, I'm not predicting anything."

The federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman now being considered by the Supreme Court. The court must also rule on California's Proposition 8, a ban on same-sex marriage.

The justice told the New York audience on Sunday that 2013 is likely to be "a turning point for those whose lives will be changed, for better or for worse, by those rulings."

Born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, Sotomayor was nominated for the Supreme Court in 2009 by President Barack Obama and sworn in later that year.

She said she needs to keep returning to the Bronx, "to the essence of my world, with love, to take strength from."

Sotomayor said that while the streets of her childhood South Bronx were portrayed as "ugly, dirty, crime- and drug-ridden" in movies, she wrote about "the hopes and struggles of the people," about "a beloved world for someone like me."

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - Groups supporting the right to abortion filed suit on Tuesday challenging an Arkansas law that would ban most abortions after 12 weeks, seeking to block one of the nation's most restrictive abortion measures before it takes effect in July.

The Republican-controlled Arkansas legislature overrode Democratic Governor Mike Beebe's veto of the controversial measure in March. At the time, it was the most restrictive state abortion law in the nation.

Since then North Dakota lawmakers passed a law banning abortion as early as six weeks.

The Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act would ban most abortions at about 12 weeks of pregnancy, once a fetal heartbeat can be detected by a standard ultrasound.

It includes exemptions for rape, incest, the life of the mother and major fetal conditions. Doctors who violate the law risk having their licenses revoked by the state Medical Board.

Eleven states including Arkansas already ban abortions at 20 weeks or later, according to Kate Bernyk, spokesman for The Center for Reproductive Rights.

Eight states enforce the bans: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, Alabama, Nebraska and North Carolina. Similar measures in Arizona, Georgia and Idaho have been blocked by the courts.

The Arkansas lawsuit, filed in federal court on Tuesday by the Center for Reproductive Rights, the national American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU's Arkansas chapter, asked for a temporary injunction against the law. It was filed on behalf of two Arkansas doctors who perform abortions.

"It's a clear violation of U.S. Court rulings, dating back 40 years," said Rita Sklar, director of the ACLU of Arkansas.

Aaron Sadler, spokesman for Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, said the state had been expecting the lawsuit.

"It is our responsibility to defend state law, and we will do so in this litigation," Sadler said.

Planned Parenthood, which is the nation's largest abortion provider and operates clinics in Arkansas, fought the measure.

"This restrictive ban on safe and legal abortion puts the health and safety of Arkansas women and their families at risk," said Jill June, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. "A woman may need an abortion for many different reasons, and she should be trusted to make her own personal private medical decisions."

Jerry Cox, president of Family Council of Arkansas, which opposes abortion, said he thinks the courts will allow the Arkansas measure to stand.

"If the state of Arkansas ends up spending public funds to defend a law that protects human life, that's an excellent use of our public dollars."

(Reporting by Suzi Parker; Editing by Greg McCune and Leslie Gevirtz)

Park was to address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, a day after she and President Barack Obama urged the North's young leader, Kim Jong Un, to abandon nuclear weapons and rejoin the international community.

The strong message of solidarity was delivered amid signs North Korea was moving to dial down tensions that have escalated since it conducted an underground atomic test in February that drew tightened U.N. sanctions.

Obama declared that the days when the North could win concessions by creating a crisis were over. He said the allies would respond to aggression, but he also endorsed Park's goal of building trust with Pyongyang, as long as it honors international commitments, particularly on denuclearization.

"If what North Korea has been doing has not resulted in a strong, prosperous nation, then now's a good time for Kim Jong Un to evaluate that history and take a different path," Obama told reporters Tuesday as he stood alongside Park. "Should he choose to take a different path, not only President Park and myself would welcome it, but the international community as a whole would welcome it."

Park's attempts to build trust with Pyongyang have gained no traction. Relations have only gotten worse since she took office, two weeks after the latest nuclear test the third conducted by the North since 2006.

Pyongyang recently forced the closure of a joint industrial park that was a rare symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

But in a sign that tensions on the Korean Peninsula could be subsiding, U.S. officials reported Tuesday that North Korea has removed from a launch site two mobile, medium-range ballistic missiles that had been readied for possible test-firing.

Park, daughter of the late South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee, is on her first overseas trip since taking office in late February after winning elections in the now democratic nation, one of Asia's strongest economies.

Her visit also marks the 60th anniversary of the military alliance with the U.S. that maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea.

She becomes the sixth South Korean leader to address a joint meeting of Congress. Her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, who had an unusually close bond with Obama among foreign leaders, was the last to do so in October 2011. Also Wednesday, Park was to address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

At Tuesday's news conference, Park said the international community needed to send a firm and consistent message that North Korea's provocations and pursuit of nuclear weapons would not be tolerated, so it would be compelled to change.

She stressed the importance of the role of China, the North's key ally and economic benefactor. In a nod to its new apparent willingness to put pressure on Pyongyang, Park said China was "faithfully implementing" U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to curb the North's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

In a significant move, one of China's biggest banks said Tuesday it has halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the U.S. of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.

Just ask 4-year-old pup Huckleberry, who was crowned Monday as this year's "Beautiful Bulldog."

Huckleberry competed for the title in 2010, only to walk away empty-pawed. That changed this year, when he strutted down a blue runway at Drake University in Des Moines dressed in a beige suit as the main character from the movie "Forrest Gump."

"He's just a lover," said his owner, Stephanie Hein, as Huckleberry sat next to his miniature basketball toy and a suitcase similar to one owned by Forrest Gump.

The contest is now in its 34th year and is held ahead of the annual Drake Relays track and field meet. The university's mascot is a bulldog, and each year's winner becomes the mascot for the relays event.

Huckleberry beat 46 other bulldogs to don the crown and cape, and competition was stiff. There was a bulldog dressed as a "Thing" character by Dr. Seuss, another wore an eye patch and fake hoop earring to match his pirate-dressed owner. Diva, donning a tutu, took home the prize for best dressed.

Huckleberry seemed unfazed by all the attention, more interested in a dog-friendly cake that's served annually from the gold-painted throne. He threw in a few slobbered kisses to his owners.

When not competing, Huckleberry likes to cuddle and hang out with a girlfriend bulldog who lives nearby, according to Hein and her husband, Steven.

Huckleberry wore a Mohawk when he initially competed in 2010. But Stephanie Hein spent weeks shrinking and sowing together this year's outfit, which included a blue-checkered T-Shirt similar to the one worn by Forrest Gump.

"He was just a puppy then," she said of his first attempt. "But he's certainly grown into himself now."

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Follow Barbara Rodriguez at http://twitter.com/bcrodriguez

LONDON (Reuters) - "Know that we will not lay down our arms once Afghanistan is free." The fight must be pursued to liberate "the defenseless Muslims of the world" from Kashmir to Palestine to Samarkand, the speaker said.

It was 1988, a conference in Gujrat in Pakistan's Punjab province; a time when the enthusiasm of the anti-Soviet jihad fused with internationalist causes popular among Arab fighters and the Pakistani backers of the mujahedeen to forge the ideology of al Qaeda.

The speaker was Jalaluddin Haqqani, patriarch of one of the most formidable fighting forces in Afghanistan.

The story is told in an account of Haqqani's links with al Qaeda in a book published this month: "Fountainhead of Jihad: The Haqqani Nexus 1973-2012," by Vahid Brown and Don Rassler.

Based partly on new primary sources, the book highlights one of the big failures of the Afghan war. Meant to defeat al Qaeda, the war has failed to break the resilience of the group with which it has the closest ties - the so-called Haqqani network.

As a result, western hopes that talks with the Afghan Taliban might persuade them to break with al Qaeda in return for a share of power face a serious flaw.

Al Qaeda is, and always has been, based in Haqqani territory, and the Haqqani network is excluded from those talks after Washington designated it a terrorist organization last year.

Western officials have long said the ties between the Haqqanis and al Qaeda make it hard to include them in a political settlement - contradicting Pakistani assertions they could play a useful role in Afghanistan after most foreign combat troops withdraw at the end of 2014.

But "Fountainhead of Jihad" is unusual in detailing quite how close those ties are.

"I was surprised at how often Jalaluddin Haqqani appeared as playing a vital role in al Qaeda's history," Brown told Reuters. "The Haqqanis were everywhere."

Western officials have been holding intermittent talks with the Taliban that could lead to them opening a political office in Qatar, paving the way for more substantive negotiations.

But in a war where power is seeping out from Kabul to autonomous local actors, no one has worked out how to deal with the Haqqanis - beyond U.S. drone strikes - to ensure they do not provide a growing safe haven for al Qaeda on either side of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Based partly in North Waziristan but with business links running deep into Pakistan and the Gulf, the Haqqanis have managed to keep on the right side of the Pakistan army by focusing on Afghanistan, while retaining ties with the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), waging war on the Pakistani state.

Such is their position at the center of the Islamist network that Pakistan could face rising TTP attacks were it to push the Haqqanis too hard. "They can't go after them in a direct way without a serious backlash," said Brown.

Washington has also accused the Pakistan army of using the Haqqanis to promote Pakistan's interests in Afghanistan, a charge it denies.

PLATFORM FOR VIOLENCE, SANCTIONED BY ISLAM

The book characterizes the Haqqanis both as providers of safe haven and "a platform for the delivery of violence". This enabled them to amass wealth and power by providing services to a variety of players, from their alleged state sponsors in the Pakistan military, to al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

But as far back as the 1970s - when their secure base in southeastern Afghanistan made them useful allies for Pakistan to counter a hostile government in Kabul - the Haqqanis were always more than guns for hire.

"The Haqqanis' brand indicates a fountainhead of jihad', of violence specifically sanctioned by Islam," the book argues.

Crucially, the Haqqanis historically developed an outlook on global jihad which influenced al Qaeda as much as the Arab organization influenced the Afghan mujahideen.

During the anti-Soviet jihad, Jalaluddin Haqqani was the first Afghan Islamist known to have actively recruited Arab fighters into his ranks.

He was also the first to declare the Afghan jihad a duty for Muslims worldwide - preceding by at least four years the Palestinian scholar Abdullah Azzam whose 1984 writings are credited with being the foundation of modern global jihad.

In the mid-1980s, it was in Haqqani-dominated territory that Osama bin Laden established his first base in Afghanistan; it was through the Haqqanis that Arab fighters found their way to the battlefield; it was into this fervent atmosphere of jihad that al Qaeda would be born "in a form that was and remains to this day inextricably bound up with the Haqqani network."

When the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, came under pressure from the United States to curb al Qaeda in the 1990s, bin Laden was able to use his relationship with the Haqqanis to resist their attempts to restrict his activities.

It was from Haqqani-controlled territory that bin Laden declared a jihad against "the Jews and Crusaders" in 1998.

The book's authors make no definitive claims about whether the links between the Haqqanis and al Qaeda can be broken, but conclude "such change would mark a significant break with the group's trajectory over the last two and a half decades."

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

23 Edinson Cavani (Napoli)

18 Antonio Di Natale (Udinese)

16 Stephan El Shaarawy (AC Milan)

15 German Denis (Atalanta Bergamo)

14 Erik Lamela (AS Roma)

13 Giampaolo Pazzini (AC Milan)

Alberto Gilardino (Bologna)

12 Pablo Osvaldo (AS Roma)

Francesco Totti (AS Roma)

Marco Sau (Cagliari)

Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina)

Rodrigo Palacio (Inter Milan)

10 Miroslav Klose (Lazio)

Amauri (Parma)

Rolando Bianchi (Torino)

9Marco Borriello (Genoa)

Diego Milito (Inter Milan)

Mirko Vucinic (Juventus)

Hernanes (Lazio)

Marek Hamsik (Napoli)

Josip Ilicic (Palermo)

Mauro Icardi (Sampdoria)

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock market finished lower on Friday as natural resource stocks slumped and market sentiment soured following U.S. economic growth data that fell short of expectations.

U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5 percent rate, an increase from the fourth quarter's dismal 0.4 percent pace but shy of the 3 percent growth analysts were hoping for. The weaker-than-expected data in Canada's biggest trading partner weighed on Canadian stocks.

The overall materials group, home to mining companies, gave back 3.1 percent, while the energy group fell 1.1 percent. Together, the two resource sectors make up some 40 percent of the index's weight.

Goldcorp Inchad the biggest negative drag on the index with its 4.2 percent slide to C$29.29. Barrick Gold Corp , which reported lower quarterly profits this week, was down 3.3 percent at C$18.81. Base metal mining company First Quantum Minerals Ltdplunged 7.4 percent to C$16.67.

The price of gold, which posted its biggest weekly gain in three months, finished lower as investors took profits ahead of the three-day May Day holiday in China. China is the second-largest gold consumer after India.

Copper prices retreated on the disappointing U.S. data, following two days of gains.

"A lot of Asia's closed next week, so all the gold guys got nervous again today," said Paul Hand, managing director at RBC Capital Markets, who also noted the "outsized influence" commodities had on the Canadian stock market.

"I think if you look at the broad mood of the investors in Canada, the underperformance of the index this year versus the U.S. and/or some of the global markets is really quite evident."

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite indexclosed down 109.31 points, or 0.9 percent, at 12,220.20. The index advanced 1.3 percent for the week.

Eight of the index's 10 key sectors were mired in negative territory.

Canadian Natural Resourcesslipped 2.1 percent to C$29.58. Oil prices were pressured by caution over the tepid growth outlook for the world's two largest oil consumers, the United States and China.

"We seem to be in a euphoria and then reality sets in and the fact is, the commodities continue to be top of mind. Even though they've recovered ... they can't gain any traction or momentum or any investor favor," said Barry Schwartz, vice president and portfolio manager at Baskin Financial Services.

"No question the market wants to see higher commodity prices and see them sustained at a higher level, until they get back in."

Schwartz said prices of commodity stocks have disconnected from the underlying commodities they sell.

"You can't force people to buy them, but some of the valuations are starting to look very, very attractive," he added.

The financial subindex, which make up just over 30 percent of the main index's weight, was down 0.3 percent, led by Royal Bank of Canada , which was down 0.8 percent, at C$60.02.

In corporate results, Transcanada Corp , Canada's No. 2 pipeline company, reported higher quarterly earnings and said the long wait for U.S. government approval of its controversial Keystone XL project will further delay completion of the pipeline and push its cost above the company's $5.3 billion estimate. Shares fell 1.3 percent to C$49.14.

(Editing by James Dalgleish)

Students at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies are taking more courses and participating in elaborate cyberwarfare exercises as the military educates a generation of future commanders in the theory and practice of computer warfare.

The academies have been training cadets in cyber for more than a decade. But the effort has taken on new urgency amid warnings that hostile nations or organizations might be capable of crippling attacks on critical networks.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence, called cyberattack the top threat to national security when he presented the annual Worldwide Threat Assessment to Congress this month. "Threats are more diverse, interconnected, and viral than at any time in history," his report stated. "Destruction can be invisible, latent, and progressive."

China-based hackers have long been accused of cyber intrusions, and earlier this year the cybersecurity firm Mandiant released a report with new details allegedly linking a secret Chinese military unit to years of cyberattacks against U.S. companies. This year, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post all reported breaches in their computer systems and said they suspected Chinese hackers. China denies carrying out cyberattacks.

On Tuesday, hackers compromised Associated Press Twitter accounts and sent out a false tweet. AP quickly put out word that the report was false and that its accounts had been hacked. AP's accounts were shut down until the problem was corrected.

Once viewed as an obscure and even nerdy pursuit, cyber is now seen as one of the hottest fields in warfare "a great career field in the future," said Ryan Zacher, a junior at the Air Force Academy outside Colorado Springs, Colo., who switched from aeronautical engineering to computer science.

Last year the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., began requiring freshmen to take a semester on cybersecurity, and it is adding a second required cyber course for juniors next year.

The school offered a major in cyber operations for the first time this year to the freshman class, and 33 midshipmen, or about 3 percent of the freshmen, signed up for it. Another 79 are majoring in computer engineering, information technology or computer science, bringing majors with a computer emphasis to about 10 percent of the class.

"There's a great deal of interest, much more than we could possibly, initially, entertain," said the academy's superintendent, Vice Adm. Michael Miller.

Since 2004, the Air Force Academy has offered a degree in computer science-cyberwarfare initially called computer science-information assurance that requires cadets to take courses in cryptology, information warfare and network security in addition to standard computer science. The academy is retooling a freshman computing course so that more than half its content is about cyberspace, and is looking into adding another cyber course.

"All of these cadets know that they are going to be on the front lines defending the nation in cyber," said Martin Carlisle, a computer science professor at the Air Force Academy and director of the school's Center for Cyberspace Research.

About 25 Air Force cadets will graduate this year with the computer science-cyberwarfare degree, and many will go on to advanced studies and work in their service's cyber headquarters or for U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Md., the Defense Department command responsible for defensive and offensive cyberwarfare.

Almost every Army cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., takes two technology courses related to such topics as computer security and privacy. West Point also offers other cyber courses, and a computer security group meets weekly. One of the biggest cybersecurity challenges is keeping up with the head-spinning pace of change in the field.

"You know American history is pretty much the same" every year, said Lt. Col. David Raymond, who teaches a cybersecurity course. "In this domain, it's really tough to keep up with how this thing evolves."

In his congressional report, Clapper noted that the chance of a major attack by Russia, China or another nation with advanced cyber skills is remote outside a military conflict but that other nations or groups could launch less sophisticated cyberattacks in hopes of provoking the United States or in retaliation for U.S. actions or policies overseas. South Korea accused North Korea of mounting a cyberattack in March that shut down thousands of computers at banks and television broadcasters.

Gen. Keith Alexander, head of U.S. Cyber Command, told Congress in March the command is creating teams to carry out both offensive and defensive operations. A spokesman said the command is drawing cyber officers from the service academies, officer schools and Reserve Officer Training Corps programs.

Teams from the three academies compete in events such as last week's National Security Agency Cyber Defense Exercise, in which they try to keep simulated computer networks running as an NSA "aggressor team" attacks. Teams from the U.S. Coast Guard and Merchant Marine academies also took part, along with graduate students from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and Canada's Royal Military College.

Air Force won among undergraduate schools. The Royal Military College won among graduate schools.

That hands-on experience is invaluable, said 2nd Lt. Jordan Keefer, a 2012 Air Force Academy graduate now pursuing a master's degree in cyberoperations at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

"You can't just go out there and start hacking. That's against the law," he said. The competitions, he said, "gave me actual experience defending a network, attacking a network."

Counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, noting that really high-level computer skills are rare, suggested the military might have to re-examine some of its recruiting standards to attract the most adept cyberwarriors.

"Hackers are the 1 percent, the elite and the creators," said Clarke, who served as White House cybersecurity adviser during the Clinton administration. "I wouldn't worry a whole heck of a lot (about whether they) can they run fast or lift weights."

Cyber's appeal was enough to get Keefer to put aside his dream of becoming a fighter pilot, a job with undeniable swagger. "It's a challenge, and for people who like a challenge, it's the only place to be," Keefer said.

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Witte reported from Annapolis, Md. Associated Press Writer Michael Hill in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

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Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP. Follow Brian Witte at http://twitter.com/APBrianWitte . Follow Michael Hill at http://twitter.com/MichaelTHill