this attack reportedly killed two south korean marines and set dozens of buildings on fire. the south quickly returned fire but the north now warning of even more strikes to come jon. jon: the white house is condemning north korea and watching the situation very closely, the north, not only a nation with serious nuclear ambitions but some 30,000 u.s. troops are just across the border in the south potentially in the line of fire with when -- if this firefight gets any hotter. jennifer griffin, live at the pentagon, how serious an escalation is this? >> reporter: they're taking it very zeroo seriously, talking about it behind closed doors. we understand that the incident itself took place over 90 minutes. there were 200 artillery shells fired, northie -- korea fired first, two south koreans were killed, 20 residents were injured. we understand residents from that island are fleeing the island as we spaoefpblgt this is the most serious escalation since last march when the north koreans sunk the south korean frigot, killing 36 south korean sailors at the time but it's also the first time we've heard of artillery being fired since the armistice was signed in '5 three. jon: so no official reaction from the white house? >> the white house has had a official reaction and the pentagon is referring us to the white house reaction, the white house condemning what they call belligerent actions by the north koreans and demanding an immediate halt. again, it was a very scary situation on the island today. take listen to two residents from south korea who were on the receiving end of those shells: >> >> i was lying down and watching television when i heard the bang, when the bomb went off near my house and the house broke down, i thought wi die, so i stepped outside of the house and i stayed still. >> there was not just one location hit by artillery, but fires were everywhere and it was chaotic. i tried calling my wife at home but i could just hear darling and the phone was diswebgt dollars. >> reporter: pretty scary stuff. this comes on the heels of north korea revealing they have a second track to a nuclear weapon, jon. jon: jennifer griffin, keep an eye on it for us. jen i'm joined by former u.s. ambassador to the united nations john bolton, also a fox news crib tofrplt ambassador, you just heard from jennifer tkpwr*euin response from the white house and the pentagon whafplt do you think of that response far? >> i think it needs to be stronger. you know, the north koreans have a history, a very successful history from their perspective of acting in a belligerent fashion, and then, extracting tangible economic and political benefits from the united states, south korea and japan, and given the coincidence in time between revealing their new nuclear activities, their new nuclear reactor, their expanded uranium enrichment program and these hostilities, i think this is part of a north korean strategy which as i say has worked for them in the past. jenna: what do you think they want? >> well, i think they want subsidies and economic benefits from south korea, the united states, japan and others. i think they're going to try and bargain as they have successfully done many times over the past 20 years to promise to restrain their nuclear weapons program, they promise they will prompt -- a promise they will promptly violate in exchange for the aid that will prop up the regime. jenna: walk us through this, the president is awoken by 3:00 in the morning while most of us are thinking about the holiday ahead and he's told that north korea and south korea are exchanging fire but he also has to think about afghanistan, iraq, pakistan, russia, iran, venezuela, yemen. there's a whole list of international issues that the president has to think about. how does this figure into those priorities? >> well, it would be nice if he'd just pay more attention generally to american national security, but this is a case study in not knowing how to respond to belligerent behavior. as i say this is not simply a criticism of the obama administration. i think we've got to make it very clear to north korea that we don't bargain in these kinds of circumstances, and we've got to tell the chinese we've got to get more serious about their capability to restrain north korea. this is not a situation where we should reward this kind of aggressive behavior. we should make it very clear that we're not interested in negotiating with north korea, either bilaterally or in the 6-party talks, until this behavior stops, and i think that's a point china has to emphasize. jenna: you emphasized also that point in an editorial in the l.a. times where you say we must avoid repeating recent errors and you say this about the previous administration as well. does that mean we send ships, does that mean we have a stronger response, other than condemning the north koreans? what does that actually look like? >> we have to define more precisely what our objective is and i think our objective has to be the reunification of the korean peninsula, not that that's going to be easy but we have to squeeze the north korean regime, the threat, the nuclear threat, the conventional threat from northie korea is not going to end until north korea ends. we need to make it clear that inevitably the two koreas will be reunited and they've got to get on the right side of history. it won't be easy but we need to move in that direction. that ought to be the focus of our policy, not appeasing north korea's belligerent behavior. jenna: finally in the more immediate future over the next 24, 48, 72 hours, what do you think happens next? >> i think the next step lies with north korea. i think south koreans made it very clear they're not backing down on this so if north korea torques the pressure up again i think we've got to be prepared for a crisis situation, the president is going to have to turn his attention away from domestic affair, that's very hard for him but a president's first responsibility is protecting the united states against international threats and we may be seeing one emerge right here. jenna: ambassador bolton, thank you very much. >> thank you. jenna: we certainly want to hear from you on our top story, how do you think the u.s. should react, do you we with -- do you agree with ambassador bolton, click on the link, fox news.com home page, send us an e-mail, happening now, foxnews.com. jon: we will continue to watch the korean situation as we also cover domestic politics. pork, earmark, whatever you want to call them, some lawmakers stay they want it stopped. supporters of a ban on earmark say it's a powerful some bowl -- symbol of the fight to cut the decifit but some say it won't save the tax pairs a dime and could hand over a lot of power to the president. jim angle is live in washington to explain. >> earmarks may only be a small part of the federal budget but they cause a lot of unseemly political maneuvering, as well as nasty exchanges among lawmakers as senator claire mccaskill, a democrat, learned a few years ago. i can tell you at one point several years ago i offered an amendment to pull out own of the earmarks that was dropped dead in the night by nancy pelosi out of the farm bill and one of my democratic colleagues came up to me on the floor, got right in my face and said don't ever ask me for an earmark again if do you this. >> now, mccaskill does not seek earmarks and the republican caucus in both house has imposed a two-year ban on them but some lawmakers don't agree on exactly what an earmark means. senator john mccain, a long time foe of earmarks defined it as something slipped into a bill in the dead of night and never scrutinized or voted on by lawmakers and senator mccaskill agrees. >> what an earmark is, it's the prerogative senators have to unilaterally decide what projects are funded. it's an arbitrary system, it's not -- there's no process of merit assessment going on. it's just one senator's judgment that this is something i want to fund. >> reporter: but the current ban goes much further than that, banning any congressional directive spending item, no matter how worthy, no matter how many lawmakers think it's a good idea, no matter if it has bipartisan support, which is why many democrats and republicans opposed a broad ban for fear it puts power to the president who submits a budget full of spending items. senator inhofe opposed the ban saying otherwise the executive would possess an unbounded power, the ledge shraeuftive branch backs up, he said, only the ledge shraeufture has the power to spend money, so even some who support the ban worry it gives way too much power to the executive branch or to the democrats who have not agreed to such a ban. jon, all that will play out in the new congress. jon: interesting points there, jim angle, thanks. >> yes. jenna: fox news alert, a big announcement, coming from aruba today, expected really at any moment. is a jawbone found on the island that of missing u.s. teen natalee holloway? we could know in the next few minutes. we have a live report next. a major announcement from buckingham pal kwrarbgs we now know where and when prince william and kate middleton will tie the knot. the latest on the royal wedding plans, just ahead. jon: right now we're waiting for an announcement that could be a sign of a major breakthrough in the case of missing teenager natalee holloway. in aruba authorities are set to reveal whether or not a human jawbone found on a beach there belongs to the missing kaplz teenager. phil keating joins us live on the phone outside the aruba prosecutor's office. when exactly are we expecting that announcement jon? -- phil? >> jon, we are in the afternoon now and the basic press release of the forensic conclusion of the analysis done in the netherlands over the past week is ready to go and the spokesperson for the aruba office tells me basically they are just dotting their is and crossing their ts to finalize the document before it is mass e-mailed out to media really worldwide who are interested in this case, which is of course an unsolved missing persons case, officially, although the dutch police and investigators do consider it a murder case, even though natalee holloway's remains have never been found. # days ago, last monday, that is when this jawbone with 1molar was sent by aruban authorities to the netherlands forensic institute for analysis, they also sent natalee holloway's dental records or x-rays of her dental -- of her mouth, as well as tooth and teeth impressions. it's all that has been analyzed. you can extract dna from the jawbone as well. they're analyzing that. so this is either going to be the jawbone of natalee holloway, which would be quite shocking because this beach where it was find by an american tourist almost two weeks ago is a heavy trafficked beach outside of a major hotel resort here in aruba. otherwise, it is going to be perhaps an undetermined jawbone of unknown origin. so a lot of anticipation, a lot of expectation. it is either going to be a major breakthrough in the case of natalee holloway or yet another disappointment. bill phil keating, thank you and as soon as that announcement is made, we'll bring it to you as quickly asly can. jenna: in other news the big today set, we're learning when prince william will marry kate middleton, the royal wedding set for april 29th at westminster aby, it's the same spot where both queen elizabeth and the late queen mum were married, it was also the site of princess diana's funeral, by the way. the government plans to make this big delration, declareing it a public holiday, so mark your calendars, april 29th. jon: i'm there! there's a crisis on the korean peninsula, the north hraufrpbging a deadly attack on the south as seoul threatens to retaliate. what can the world do to curb any aggression by the rogue nation on the north side of that border? we'll go in depth. also a brand new controversy over plans to build a mosque near ground zero in new york. eric shawn is live in downtown manhattan. eric. >> reporter: well, here's the question: would you want your federal taxpayer money that you worked for to go help build the so-called ground zero mosque? they do. i'm eric shawn, i'll have the details coming up. >> reporter: i'm harris faulkner at the breaking news desk, welcome back to helicopter happening now". -- welcome back to "happens now". in ontario, canadian explosion at a high school, a science student somehow mixed something in the science lab at brenon high school that blows up, at least two students are hurt. we don't know the extent of their injuries. this is about an 18 minute drive that detroit, emergency crews responding. it will take some time to get pictures from there but brendon high school is pretty big in that area, main high school, so windsor, ontario in canada, just across the way from detroit. we'll keep our eye on this one, students hurt in this science experiment gone wrong, jon and jenna. >> we'll keep you up to date on that news. in new york city, there is controversy over the plans to build that mosque, islamic cultural center near ground zero, now applying for funds and the money will come from plans to rebuild manhattan in the wake of 9/11 attacks. eric shawn, what's the deal? >> there's anger and outrage over the proposed ground zero mosque. there's a federal fund of $17 million. it's suppose to go to groups and organizations here in lower manhattan, to help reright shraoeuz lower manhattan in the wake of the attacks of the 9/11. well, the ground nero mosque so-called supporter, they reportedly want almost one third of that money to help build the project and also for social services, they say. some people coming out against that vehemently, among them, congressman peter king, a republican who is likely to become the next chairman of the homeland security committee. he says that the request goes against the spirit of the fund. he also calls it a slap in the face, and says it shows gross insensitivity. >> it's an affront to the memory of those from 9/11, it's effect taking money that was appropriated after the attacks, taking hard earned taxpayer money to use it to help build a 13 story edifice which would be in the shadow of ground zero. >> 265 groups are vie fog that $17 million, but no decision on which groups will get that. jenna: lots of groups and quite a bit of money, eric, right? what are the developers saying about this? >> the developer is shaf ear ao*e al gamal, behind the project known as park 51 and in a statement, he said among other things, quote, that park 51 is committed to exploring all sources of revenue and funding to build the community center, the grant would, in part, he says, fund social service programs for all residents of lower manhattan, among those programs, they say, are homeless outreach to veterans, teaching arabic and other foreign languages and dealing with immigration services, and in a statement he does not specify how much of the federal money could be used to help construct the mosque. they reportedly need about $140 million to build this thing, which may be one reason why they have their hand out to the government, jenna. jenna: interesting story and still developing. thank you very much, eric shawn for us in lower manhattan. this stirs up a lot of feelings on all sides of the issue. we want to hear what you think about this, should the new york city project or islamic cultural center get those funds? click on and see what other folks are saying about it there on foxnews.com. jon: brand new developments on our top story, north korea's most dramatic confrontation with the south since more than a half century ago, that according to the u.n. secretary general. right now reaction is coming in from around the world. the u.s. condemns the north attack on that sort korean island urging the rogue nation to halt its belligerent action, the u.s. also pledging support for the south but saying no additional u.s. military assets will be heading to the region at least for now. kwraurb is calling the north's action quote, a colossal danger and pushing for resumption of talks to stop the communist country's nuclear program. japan, also strongly condemning the attack, calling it unforgivable. but china, the north's only real although i, seemed careful not to take sides, calling on both koreas to do more to contribute to peace. meantime, the nato alliance, the european union and great britain all condemned the attack, they expressed concern and called for restraint. joining us, joe cerentioni, author of bum bomb square" and mike at oslan, director of japan studies and resident scholar, asian studies at the american enterprise institute, or aei. let me paraphrase what the white house is saying, president obama is going to speak to south korea's president, he is saying that northiea is not living up to*euts obligations and also that it has a history of provocative acts, no real headline there, but so far, the white house, joe, with a very measured response. if you are advising the president, and first you, joe, what would you tell him to do. >> i would say the president has to respond confidently but cautiously to this situation, he has to back south korea here, he has to also reach out to china to indicate to them that this north korean regime as it now stands is a strategic instability in the world, china has to get serious about embracing this problem, but you have to be careful here. here's why. this is the most heavily militarized area on earth, over a million men under arms, tens of thousands of rockets and artillery tubes on the border. there have been 150 military incidents between the north and the south in the last 50 years, that's about three a year. this is one of the most serious. and here's the kicker. this comes at the beginning of a massive south korean military exercise involving 70,000 troops, right in that region, off the north korean coast, the largest ever staged in that area. one missed calculation, one misinterpretation and this tinder box could go up. jon: michael, what would you tell the president? >> i think joe has pegged it right in terms of the seriousness. i think the fact is we need to get a little stronger ourselves. you look at the video that's playing, it looks like something out of pearl harbor. i think there's a couple of things we can do, one, you move the george washington up into the yellow sea. we've pulled it back twice, that sent the wrong signal. number two, you start moving american, korean and possibly japanese bmd ships up into that area to let the north know if it starts firing off missiles, if it does does anything else, we're prepared to respond. number three, i think we rule out the idea of talks with north korea until the behavior changes. i mean, this i don't think is designed to get us back to the table over the recent uranium nuclear revelation, but it is designed to intimidate south korea and keep them from doing these exercises. we need to be there, not just with words, we can condemn this until the cows come home. we need to be there with more action and let the north then understand that we're serious about backing our ally. jon: joe, back in march, the north sank that south korean ship, 46 sailors, killed. no real reaction from the world, except a lot of finger pointing. is this the follow-on to that? >> well, it led to a series of sanctions but i would agree that that is not enough. north korea has a history of taking actions, military actions, that are way out of proportion to anything that possibly could have led to those actions. the answer to this, and many of your commentators have noted this throughout the day, it's really china. we have to encourage china to get serious about resolving the problem with the north korean regime. i disagree with my colleague here, i think this is exactly the time for dip