1. State conflict

The biggest threat to world stability over the next 10 years is likely to come from geopolitical tensions. According to the report, the crisis in Ukraine, Russia's simmering tensions with Europe, and strained Chinese-Japanese relations are all evidence that the world's biggest powers have once again started engaging in strategic power struggles. Although not all these conflicts were explicitly violent in nature, the probability of regional spillovers was the issue that most spooked policymakers about global stability in the short and long-term.

2. Water is the new oil

The threat which was judged as having the biggest impact on the world population, was a crisis in the world's water supply. An estimated 4 billion to 5 billion people in the world suffer from strained access to clean water, with the Middle East in particular likely to be a hotspot for struggles around water supply. “We could see the same tensions around water as we have seen around oil” - Espen Elde, managing director of the WEF.

3. State collapse

2014 saw the emergence of the non-state actors which threatened and sometimes over-ran the sovereignty of nation states. Chief among them were the Islamic State (Isil) and this trend towards government collapse in Syria and Iraq is highlighted as one of the associated risks that come with geopolitical conflict. “Isis has claimed control of territory and attracted 20,000 to 30,000 fighters from a near standing start,” read the report. The group's brutality could also lead to the use of weapons of mass destruction and increase the likelihood of large-scale terrorist attacks over the next decade.

4. Unemployment

For the first time in the report's near 10-year history, economic concerns feature far less prominently. A slow and sluggish return to global growth has reduced the likelihood of another financial crisis, but of all the economic threats that still remain, unemployment ranked as the most probable long-term threat to social stability.

The country is already in deflation. The Swiss franc ended Thursday 13 per cent higher after the SNB abandoned its three-year efforts to defend a currency floor of 1.20 to the euro. “We have a free exchange rate once again,” said the SNB’s president, Thomas Jordan.

Indeed, but nobody is fooled by the SNB’s attempt to spin this as benign. “This is a huge hit to their credibility,” said Deutsche Bank. The official statement claimed that the exchange floor is no longer needed and that “overvaluation has decreased as a whole since the introduction of the minimum exchange rate”. This is eyewash. “They have had to throw in the towel. They couldn’t hold the line anymore,” said David Owen, from Jefferies Fixed Income. “This is going to cause extreme pain for parts of the Swiss economy but the SNB are trapped.”

It means that the European Central Bank can no longer keep dragging its feet on QE. Whether the ECB announces a €1 trillion blitz next week, or just €500 billion, funds are already flooding into Switzerland from the eurozone. The SNB has to pick its poison. It is damned for one set of reasons if it holds the currency peg, and damned for another set if it ditches the peg. Welcome to the world of horrible dilemmas facing modern central banks.

Speaking on board the papal plane on his way to the Philippines, he also insisted that it was an 'aberration' to kill in the name of God and that religion can never be used to justify violence. By way of example, Pope Francis referred to Alberto Gasparri, who organises papal trips and was standing by his side aboard the papal plane.

'If my good friend Dr Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch,' Francis said, throwing a pretend punch his way. 'It's normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. They are provocateurs. And what happens to them is what would happen to Dr Gasparri if he says a curse word against my mother. There is a limit.'

In the wake of the Paris attacks, the Vatican has sought to downplay reports that it is a potential target for Islamic extremists, saying it is being vigilant but has received no specific threat.

Agents will also co-operate in "cyber cells" on both sides of the Atlantic.

Downing Street said the cells, involving MI5 and the FBI, were the first the UK had established with another country. They will aim to improve the flow of information between the US and UK about threats. The measures come in the wake of the recent hacking of Sony Pictures' computers and the US military's Central Command's Twitter feed, where comments were posted promoting Islamic State (IS) militants.

“If the global economy is weak, on its knees, it’s not going to help,” said Ms Lagarde in remarks previewing the IMF’s latest forecasts for the global economy due out on Monday. The eurozone, at risk of a third recession in six years, continues to struggle with the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis. Japan is also mired in low inflation, high debt and anemic growth. And output in many major emerging markets — economies that have provided most of the gas for global growth over the last decade — is slowing faster than expected.

He added, “When our president doesn’t acknowledge that this is a religious-driven war, it’s gonna be very hard to win it.” Graham also said that Obama thinks the War on Terror has reached a point which allows him to safely release prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. “The best I can say about him is he’s unfocused. That’s delusional thinking. The War on Terror has reached a lethal phase and it is insane to be letting these people out of Gitmo to go back to the fight,” he said.

“This rare and substantial firepower apparently even exceeded the firepower possessed by most of the European states combined,” Amidror said in the report. Additionally, Hezbollah is armed with surface-to-sea missiles, anti-aircraft missiles, drones and modern anti-tank missiles.

“It is well organized into a military-style hierarchy and appears to possess command and control systems of high quality. It was established by Iranian leaders, but its leadership has always consisted of Lebanese people who were closely linked to Iran’s interests,” the report continued. “Hezbollah assisted the Shi’ites by providing for their needs in the civilian sphere as a base for building its military power.”

Hezbollah is busy with its intervention in Syria, a war it deems crucial for its own survival, according to Amidror. “It fights beside the Syrian Alawites because it needs them to stay in power. If Assad survives, Hezbollah’s status in Lebanon will increase, as will its status in Damascus.” Hamas in the Gaza Strip also constitutes a steadily rising security threat, one that is able to manufacture its own longrange rockets and tunnel grid.

Hamas is left with 3,500 rockets after a 50-day war with Israel. Now, “the big question is the speed at which Hamas can regain the capabilities it has lost. For Hamas, the current regime in Egypt is a formidable obstacle. Hamas has the markings of a well-organized military organization, as well as an impressive ability to learn and improve,” Amidror wrote. Islamic Jihad in Gaza cannot be discounted as a threat either.

"The axis is capable of responding,” he said, referring to Syria itself, Iran, Hezbollah as well as Palestinian Hamas. “It could happen any time. We are now stronger than we ever were as a resistance movement,” Nasrallah said, adding that Hezbollah has all the weapons one can “imagine” in “great quantities.” The organization is fully prepared to fight Israel, and it would be a mistake for Tel Aviv to believe the resistance has been weakened or exhausted, he warned.

Democratic campaign veteran Mark Hannah and National Review editor Rich Lowry weighed in on the polls and Islamic extremism tonight on “The Kelly File.” “The fact is if you have terror groups taking over large swaths of territory in the Middle East, we’re not safer,” Lowry said, adding that the plan to fight ISIS “is at best extremely tentative.”

“The administration’s refusal – increasingly ridiculous in recent days – to even say the phrase ‘radical Islam’ is insulting and childish. How stupid do they think we are?” Lowry asked.

Only days ago, SNB officials had described the 1.20 francs per euro cap, introduced in 2011 at the height of the euro zone crisis to fend off deflation and a recession, as a policy cornerstone.

The U-turn sent the franc nearly 30 percent higher against the euro in chaotic early trading. Coming a week before the European Central Bank is expected to unveil a bond-buying program to counter deflationary pressures, it fed speculation that this quantitative easing (QE) scheme will be so big that the SNB would have struggled to defend the cap.

On social media, the move was dubbed "Francogeddon".

With more than 40 percent of Swiss exports going to the euro zone, firms across Switzerland warned of a plunge in profits, with the luxury and tourism industries most exposed. "Today's SNB action is a tsunami; for the export industry and for tourism, and finally for the entire country," said Nick Hayek, chief executive of Swiss watch firm Swatch (UHR.VX). SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan denied at a news conference that the move amounted to a "panic reaction", saying the cap had been scrapped because it was unsustainable.

President Joachim Gauck also addressed the vigil at the Brandenburg Gate, organised by the Central Council of Muslims in Germany under the banner "Let's be there for each other. Terror: not in our name!" "We are all Germany," Gauck said. "We, democrats with our different political, cultural and religious backgrounds; we, who respect and need each other; we, who want to live life in unity, justice and freedom. Our answer to the fundamentalism of the Islamist perpetrators of violence is democracy, respect for the law, respect for each other, respect for human dignity. This is our way of life!"

The vigil came a day after the self-declared Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident, or PEGIDA, drew a record 25,000 marchers to its 12th weekly rally in Dresden, located in the former communist East Germany. PEGIDA, launched in October, has grown to set new attendance records week after week and spawned smaller copycat groups nationwide, provoking much soul-searching in a country haunted by its history of Nazi rule and the Holocaust. The protests have been spurred by a sharp rise in refugees seeking political asylum in Germany, which has been struggling to house the newcomers in converted schools, office blocks and container villages.