Methodists to talk with Caterpillar

PEORIA -- Caterpillar executives have agreed to meet with United Methodist Church leaders over their objections to the company's heavy equipment sales to Israel. Leaders of the church had threatened to divest its Caterpillar holdings because the Peoria-based company sells bulldozers the Israeli army uses to demolish buildings as part of its occupation of the West Bank. In a letter to the church Thursday, Caterpillar condemned what it called illegal or immoral use of its equipment and agreed to talk.