By James Lomuscio

Under sunny skies and with many flags of the United Nations’s 193 member countries billowing on Westport’s Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge, about 300 U.N. ambassadors, delegates, staff and their families converged on the Saugatuck Elementary School today for the town’s 48th annual jUNe Day to commemorate the signing of the U.N. Charter in 1945.

Bill Haas of Westport, president of the U.N. Association of Southwestern Connecticut, welcomes guests at today’s jUNe Day ceremony at Saugatuck Elementary School. Listening are (l-r) Westport First Selectman Gordon Joseloff, Patricia O’Brien, U.N. Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs, and Ambassador and U.N. Under-Secretary General Joseph V. Reed. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Patricia O’Brien of Ireland, the U.N.‘s Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs, was the keynote speaker, noting that she was amazed when she learned the event was being held in Westport.

“In Ireland we have a Westport, and we see our Westport as a very special place,” she said. “In fact, last year it was voted the best place to live in Ireland, so there’s a great synergy.”

O’Brien said that driving around Westport today, she, too, could envision moving to town.

United Nations guests here for today’s jUNe Day annual celebration in Westport marking the 1945 signing of the U.N. Charter walk across the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge flying the flags of the U.N. member nations. The guests were welcomed at a ceremony at Saugatuck Elementary School, then spent the day touring Westport, including Earthplace and Compo Beach. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Helen Klisser During for WestportNow.com

Sandica Dragomir, who is from Romania and works as an interpreter at the United Nations, points out her nation’s flag flying today on the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge in Westport’s center. Flags of United Nations member nations were flown in honor of today’s jUNe Day celebration. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Helen Klisser During for WestportNow.com

It was a misty, cloudy Friday night at Westport’s Compo Beach. Despite a forecast of possible thunderstorms and heavy rains, the storms did not come. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dayle Brownstein for WestportNow.com

Westport Police arrested a Long Island woman for breaking into the SplatterBox, a children’s art studio at 1252 Post Road East, last June, police said today.

Theresa Clinding, 45, of Hempstead, N.Y. was extradited from New York today where she had been incarcerated on unrelated charges, said Capt. Vincent Penna.

Clinding had been identified by witnesses who observed her flee the SplatterBox in a vehicle that was registered to her, Penna said.

Charged with one count of third-degree burglary, Clinding is being held in lieu of a $75,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Norwalk Superior Court on Tuesday, July 16. According to Penna, Clinding faces charges for similar crimes in other Connecticut and New York municipalities.