Leave it to the UK's Daily Mail to fire the latest salvo in a war of words with the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

At issue is the paper's right to publish a story about Mr. Schroeder's possible romantic connection with a "TV Presenter" in Germany. According to this story on the BBC's web site, the Mail is standing by their right to publish material about public figures.

In a nice jab by the publisher, the Mail stated "Because of our different tradition and our robust democracy, we can publish this sort of material and we have every right to do so".

Now, there are plenty of folks who would point out that the Mail is considered basically a tabloid by U.S. standards, given it's propensity to print outrageous stories and to concentrate on digging up dirt about celebrities.

On the other hand, people will also point out that the Chancellor has a history of attacking the press for reporting about his private life.