Japan sent an emergency medical team to Pakistan on Monday to join international relief efforts in the aftermath of a powerful earthquake that hit the region, killing more than 20,000 people. The team of 21 doctors, nurses and other medical experts were to arrive in Lahore on Tuesday and then travel by land to the areas hardest hit by Saturday's magnitude-7.6 quake, Foreign Ministry official Hokuto Kaya said. They were expected to stay in Pakistan for about two weeks. Separately, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Shuzen Tanigawa was to head for Islamabad later Monday for talks with Pakistani officials on additional relief needs and to observe quake-struck areas, Kaya was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. Japan on Sunday announced it will provide 25 million yen (US$221,000; ¤182,000) worth of relief goods, including blankets, tents and water purifiers, to Pakistan, and dispatched a team of about 50 disaster relief workers to the country.
