Question: Is there a Java Web Framework, with mvc, thrid-party integration APIs, libraries and tools? Something like Zend Framework for PHP?

Answer: 
Using Zend for a while, I found the transition to Spring fairly easy.
Spring does come with more bells and whistles (Dependancy injection, AOP etc)
[Play Framework](http://www.playframework.org/) is more light weight compared to Spring , JSF or Struts. More close to Zend in some sense. and has scala support :)