getting HTTP error 500 when adding placemark with style

[alpha beta]

Hi,

We have been using the Google Maps Data HTTP API to create new maps from our mobile app without problem.

Starting from yesterday, we are getting HTTP error 500 when adding placemarks to a map.

The placement in question is like this:

<Document>
    <Style id="StartIcon">
        <IconStyle><Icon><href>http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/paddle/red-blank_maps.png</href></Icon></IconStyle>

    </Style>
    <Placemark>
        <name>Start</name>
        <description>Thu 21/7/2011 6:52PM</description>
        <styleUrl>#StartIcon</styleUrl>
        <Point><coordinates>151.137009,-33.724493,0</coordinates></Point>
    </Placemark>
</Document>

In order to give each placemark on a map a different coloured icon, we supply an image URL in an <Style> tag. This has been working fine until yesterday.

Were there changes on the Maps server side lately that has caused this issue? If so, why was the API changed?

By experiment, we found that the placemark can be successfully added to a map if we do not supply the <Style> tag. That means all placements will have the same standard blue icon which is not ideal. How can I continue creating placemarks with custom icon style?

Hope someone can shed some light on this.