The latest edition of Tax Justice Focus - the newsletter of the Tax Justice Network has been published.

Available in English and French, it's a special edition on accountability. The articles for this edition were commissioned from mostly French-speaking authors, and edited by Jean Meckaert of the Plateforme Paradis Fiscaux et Judiciaires. A key focus of the edition is on France's and Europe's role in the offshore world, and on efforts to tackle the offshore scandal.

The editorial, Objective Doha: Tackling the Tax Havens, considers the upcoming conference on Financing for Development, and look at the failures of some of the international initiatives to date that have sought to confront some aspects of the multi-dimensional problem of offshore.

In the lead article, Europe Leads the Fight Against Tax Havens, world experts Christian Chavagneux and Ronen Palan examine how Europe is leading the way in efforts to tackle tax haven abuse - with some success; it and looks at some of the challenges facing those who are fighting this battle.

Xavier Harel, who recently published a book about Africa's oil industry and some of the corruption that surrounds it, has written an article entitled Africa: the Shadow World of Oil, which examines some of the arcane battles that have been going on between wealthy Congolese politicians and American speculative funds in some of the world's dirtiest tax havens.

Next, Jean Meckaert and Antoine Dulin, in their article Tax Havens and Ill-Gotten Wealth, describe a recent study they have published about cat-and-mouse games to repatriate many billions of dollars looted from the public treasuries of some of the world's poorest countries, and resistance from rich countries - including France - to handing back the stolen loot.

Take a look.