Washington - There is a higher risk of a terrorist attack in the United States during the transition between the Bush and Obama administrations, the nation's top homeland security chief said Wednesday.

"Any time there's a transition there's a danger or a risk that vulnerability (to terror attacks) will increase because people become distracted," Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff said, according to CNN. "People are leaving; people are coming in and that's a disruptive process for any organization."

San Francisco - Wells Fargo, the biggest bank on the US west coast, said Wednesday it would issue 10 billion dollars in stock to help pay for the takeover of Wachovia Corp.

Wells Fargo triumphed in a bitter takeover struggle against Citigroup weeks ago to acquire the troubled Wachovia - a takeover that came amidst massive turmoil and bankruptcies in the finance industry.

Washington - One day after congressional elections, four races in the Senate remained undecided Wednesday and the outcome in a handful of contests in the House of Representatives were still uncertain.

But it was clear that Democrats had widened their majorities in both chambers.

Democrats capitalized on the backlash against Republicans and President George W Bush to pick up seats. The Democrats won three Senate seats vacated by retiring Republicans in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado, while Democratic challengers ousted two of their Republican opponents in New Hampshire and North Carolina.

San Francisco - Networking giant Cisco Systems held quarterly profits stable at 2.2 billion, it said Wednesday. But the Silicon Valley bellwether warned that the challenging economy would drop fiscal second quarter revenues by between 5 and 10 per cent.

The company posted revenues for the quarter of 10.3 billion dollars, up 8 per cent for the same period last year.

Washington - Even in bitter defeat, Republicans joined Democrats in celebrating Barack Obama's historic achievement of becoming the first African American to become president of the United States.

President George W Bush, whose vast unpopularity coupled with the falling economy prompted the voter backlash against Republicans that likely cost John McCain the election, couldn't help but praise Obama on Wednesday for breaking the racial barrier and overcoming more than two centuries of discrimination.

New York - Wall Street delivered its worst-ever post- election session Wednesday as major stock indices lost more than 5 per cent, one day after the US market's biggest-ever election day gains.

Tuesday trading saw gains of more than 3 per cent on Wall Street, even as voters were choosing Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain for a four-year presidential term starting in January.