I downloaded and unzipped STS. I then started following the tutorial here that creates a simple Spring MVC application – http://www.javapassion.com/rebels/spring3_sts/
I go to File->New Spring Template Project->Spring MVC Project->(enter project name & package)->Finish
Then I right-click my project->Run as->Run on Server->Finish
I get the following –

I then opened the pom.xml file, which seems to contain the error, and here is what the error it contains – 
So does anybody know what is going wrong and how to fix it?
Its very simple Jim. Don’t panic.
Just right click on your project and then in Run As click on Maven Install option and go for some refreshments. When you’ll come back after some time. Check your console. If it has stopped that means all your libraries needed to run this sample project is downloaded successfully by maven.
After that again right click on the project and go to Run As and click on Maven Clean that should build your project and create a war file for you. And don’t forget to check the console that should say Build Successful.
After this just check your project structure. That should not show any red asteric mark anywhere in project.
And there you go. Now you can run your project successfully.
Hope this helps you.
Cheers.