Faced with mounting criticism over government inaction, King Abdullah II of Jordan dissolved parliament on Monday and ordered the holding of a general election two years before the scheduled date.
Haiti's President René Préval has asked the country's planning minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, to form a new government after Haitian senators voted to oust the previous cabinet.
Saad Hariri (pictured) has been reappointed as Lebanon's prime minister-designate after stepping down from the post last week when his choice of cabinet members failed to win the approval of the Hezbollah-led opposition.
Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama (photo), took power on Wednesday after his centre-left Democratic Party of Japan unseated the ruling conservatives in August 30 legislative elections for the first time in close to 50 years.
Hirohisa Fujii, a 77-year-old former bureaucrat who has been a vocal opponent of wasteful public spending in the past, announced on Wednesday that he had accepted the post of Japanese finance minister under incoming premier Yukio Hatoyama.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced on Monday that he was accepting the resignation of Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora (pictured), the country's top anti-drug official, as part of a broader change in the makeup of his cabinet.
Taiwan's PM threw in the towel on Monday amid a public outcry at his reponse to Typhoon Morakot which hit the island in early August, killing hundreds of people. Liu Chao-shiuan also said his government was ready to quit.
