Putin and Abe struggle for progress on island dispute

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday agreed to start flights for former residents to visit a disputed island chain as he and Japanese premier Shinzo Abe again struggled to make progress on a decades-old territorial dispute.Russia and Japan have been blocked from signing a formal treaty to end World War II hostilities for seven decades over the island disagreement, hampering closer ties.The Soviet Union seized the islands off Japan's northern coast -- called the Southern Kurils by Moscow and the