TOKYO — Japan's economy unexpectedly slipped back into recession as housing and business investment dropped following a sales tax hike, hobbling its ability to help drive the global recovery.

The world's third-largest economy contracted at a 1.6 percent annual pace in the July-September quarter, the government said today, confounding expectations that it would rebound after a big drop the quarter before.

The news cast a pall over financial markets: Japan's share benchmark fell 3 percent, and many others in Asia also declined. Shares were lower in early trading in Europe and Dow Jones and S&P futures were off 0.5 percent, suggesting a dismal start for the week on Wall Street.

An economy is generally considered to be in recession when it shrinks for two consecutive quarters.

“GDP for July-September wasn't good, unfortunately,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a political gathering in Tokyo shortly after his return to Japan from the Group of 20 leading economies in Brisbane, Australia.

The downturn deepens global uncertainty as growth slows in China and remains stubbornly flat in the 18-country eurozone.

Japan's weakness could hinder growth elsewhere if its companies cut investment and buy fewer imports such as machinery, electronics and raw materials. Though it is a small, island nation, Japan is one of the world's biggest importers of food and the third-biggest buyer of natural gas.

LONDON — Chickens were being slaughtered in the Netherlands and Britain was preparing to kill ducks after two cases of bird flu were discovered in Europe — but officials insisted today that the risk to public health was very low.British officials said they were investigating a case of the H5 bird flu virus in northern England, but noted it's not the more dangerous H5N1 strain. They said all 6,000 ducks at a breeding farm in the Driffield area of East Yorkshire will be killed and a restriction zone was being set up to prevent further spread of the infection. Tests were also being carried out at nearby farms.The UK government food agency said there is no risk to the food chain and British Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens told BBC the risk of the disease spreading is probably quite low.It was the first bird flu outbreak in Britain in six years, officials said. A government spokesman said Britain has a “strong track record of controlling and eliminating previous outbreaks of avian flu in the UK.”

PARIS — A young Frenchman is believed to be among the killers on an Islamic State propaganda video showing a beheaded American aid worker and the deaths of more than a dozen Syrian soldiers, France's top security official said today.Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said there is a “strong presumption” that Maxime Hauchard is among the group of Islamic extremist fighters in the video released over the weekend. He urged young people in France to “open your eyes to the terrible reality” of the militant group.Cazeneuve said authorities were analyzing the video and have been investigating Hauchard, who is around 22 years old. The convert to Islam gave an interview to France's BFM television in July, telling the network he had helped in the capture of Mosul, the Iraqi city whose fall eventually prompted the United States to resume military operations there.French citizens make up the largest contingent of European jihadi fighters who have joined extremists in Syria and Iraq.