Police said they believe arsonists were responsible for a fire that damaged a door at the consular and cultural section of the Algerian Embassy in London. Scotland Yard said in a statement that the fire extensively damaged the door at the building at Hyde Park Gate in the center of London. The consular and cultural section is about a mile from the main embassy building at Holland Park. The brief Scotland Yard statement gave no indication whether the blaze Monday night was linked with the current wave of violence in Algeria over austerity measures. Embassy staff could not be contacted as the building was closed for the night. The Scotland Yard statement gave no indication how the fire was started. In Algeria on Monday, soldiers with machine guns fired into a crowd of more than 10,000 in the Bab-el-Oued district of the capital Algiers and eyewitnesses said they killed at least 25 people and injured dozens more. Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid in a nationwide address Monday night promised reforms to end the week-long revolt over economic policies. He defended his declared state of emergency and said he would ``not allow the country to fall into anarchy.'' Bendjedid has been the main advocate of an economic austerity program aimed at forcing Algeria to live within its means in the face of falling oil and gas prices.
