Germany - 40 Children Are Removed After Suspected Physical Abuse by Sect - NYTimes.com The police raided a Christian sect in southern Germany, removing 40 children and placing them temporarily in foster care on suspicion that they had been physically abused, the authorities said Friday. Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into whether some of the sect's adult members had beaten and otherwise mistreated the children. Among the items seized in the raid were sticks that investigators suspect had been used to hit the children. Members of the sect, who call themselves the 12 Tribes, acknowledged that they believe in spanking their children, but they denied wrongdoing. In a statement on its Web site, the sect, which was founded by a Tennessee high school teacher in the 1970s, said of the children: "Because we love them, we do spank them. When they are disobedient or intentionally hurtful to others, we spank them with a small reedlike rod, which only inflicts pain and not damage.