Sunday, October 25, 2009 BERLIN: A surgeon of Vietnamese birth was appointed to the German government Saturday, the first person of non-European origin to serve as a minister in Berlin.Philipp R'sler, who was born 36 years ago in Vietnam and adopted as a nine-month-old baby by a German couple, becomes health minister in the government of conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel.A rising star in the liberal Free Democrat party (FDP), R'sler was until now the German state of Lower Saxony's minister for the economy and deputy premier.A heart and chest surgeon by training, Roesler, will have his work cut out as he seeks to get the German health system back on a sound financial footing. He was the FDP's point man over the past three weeks in negotiating a government programme for health reform with Merkel's Christian-Democrats.The reform is expected to lead to higher health insurance premiums as the government struggles to keep the system viable.Adopted from a Vietnamese o...
Get to know about News and lifestyle