Ecuadorian president lifts state of emergency
Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez lifted a state of emergency in the capital on Saturday, as thousands of Ecuadorians took to the streets to demand his resignation for declaring the ban and firing the Supreme Court.

"I have lifted the state of emergency and asked for the maintenance of tranquility and peace," the embattled president spoke over national television.

"Little by little, tranquility is returning to the nation," he said.

Gutierrez, 48, declared the state of emergency late Friday after three days of loud but peaceful protests demanding his ouster.

He also announced to dissolved the Supreme Court, for the second time since December, saying the judges -- who were appointed in December by his congressional allies in a process widely deemed unconstitutional -- were the cause of three days of street protests in Quito.

Residents of the capital had defied the state of emergency, taking to the streets by the thousands and banging pots and pans across the city. Security forces did not move to stop the demonstration against Gutierrez's decrees aimed at ending a crisis over the court crisis.

The court crisis was set in motion in November when the former judges sided with opposition politicians in a failed effort to impeach Gutierrez on corruption charges. Gutierrez then assembled a bloc of 52 lawmakers in the 100-seat unicameral Congress, which voted in December to remove the judges.

When he first dissolved the high court in December, Gutierrez promised to set up a new system aimed at choosing impartial judges. But he failed to find a compromise with Congress, which rejected his call for a referendum on overhauling the courts.