BRUSSELS — European Union officials hoped to sketch out a Brexit deal with Britain within hours, but negotiations stretched into early Wednesday in the latest effort at producing an agreement in more than three years of false starts and sudden reversals.

The bloc said it might be possible to strike a divorce deal by Thursday’s EU leaders’ summit, which comes just two weeks before the U.K.’s scheduled departure date of Oct. 31. One major proviso: The British government must make more compromises to seal an agreement in the coming hours.

Britain and the EU have been here before — within sight of a deal only to see it dashed — but a surge in the British pound Tuesday indicated hope that this time could be different. The currency rose against the dollar to its highest level in months.

Even though many questions remain, diplomats made it clear that both sides were within touching distance of a deal for the first time since a U.K. withdrawal plan fell apart in the British House of Commons in March.

Still, talks that first lingered into Tuesday night turned into negotiating past midnight as no deal materialized between experts from both sides holed up at EU headquarters in a darkened Brussels.

Thursday’s EU leaders’ meeting, the last before the Brexit deadline, was long considered the last opportunity to approve a divorce agreement. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists his country will leave Oct. 31 with or without an agreement, although U.K. lawmakers are determined to push for another delay rather than risk a chaotic no-deal Brexit.

France OKs bill legalizing IVF for lesbians, single women

PARIS — France’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that aims to give single women and lesbian couples legal access to in vitro fertilization, egg freezing and fertility medication.

The assisted reproduction measures are part of a broader bioethics bill voted by the National Assembly. The bill passed 359-114. It must still go to the Senate for debate.

French law currently restricts in vitro fertilization and related procedures to infertile heterosexual couples.

The legislation also would allow children conceived with donated sperm to demand the donor’s identity when they reach age 18, a change from France’s currently strict donor anonymity protections.

The bill does not address surrogacy arrangements, which are banned in France.

Feds propose opening biggest national forest to logging

JUNEAU, Alaska — The U.S. Forest Service is taking comments on a proposal that would exempt the country’s largest national forest, in southeast Alaska, from a ban on timber harvests and road building in roadless areas.

This option would exempt the Tongass National Forest from the so-called Roadless Rule.

The Forest Service says this alternative is in line with a request from the state. The state submitted a petition seeking an exemption in 2018.

The agency says the alternative affects 9.2 million acres of inventoried roadless areas and would convert 165,000 old-growth acres and 20,000 young-growth acres from a designation as unsuitable timber lands to suitable.

Conservationists criticized the plan as short-sighted and irrational.

Initial count: Conservative law professor wins Tunisia election

TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisia’s election commission said a preliminary count shows Islamist-backed law professor Kais Saied has won the country’s presidential election by a significant margin.

The commission said that Saied got a majority of the votes in each of the 33 electoral districts. He exceeded 90% in six traditionally conservative southern districts.

Saied, 61, is an independent outsider but has support from moderate Islamist party Ennahdha, which won Tunisia’s parliamentary election last week.

He has promised to overhaul the country’s governing structure to give more power to young people and local governments.

The election was held early following the July death in office of President Beji Caid Essebsi.

Puerto Rican governor calls emergency meeting

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rican Gov. Wanda Vazquez called an emergency meeting Tuesday after six people were killed in a mass shooting in San Juan’s Rio Pedras housing project Monday and gunfire left two people dead a day earlier in the island’s north.

She convened a gathering of her security team, led by public security chief Elmer Roman and justice secretary Dennise Longo Quinones.

After the meeting, Roman said increased air and land patrols were discussed, along with reinforcing social programs.

Officials said a patrol assigned to the Rio Piedras residence was not there at the time of the shooting but at a nearby housing project.

The spate of crimes adds to Puerto Rico’s problems, which include a prolonged recession, a hurricane in 2017 and the ousting of the island’s governor in August.

Judge blocks Michigan’s ban on flavored e-cigarettes

LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan judge temporarily blocked the state’s weeks-old ban on flavored e-cigarettes Tuesday, saying it may force adults to return to smoking more harmful tobacco products and has irreparably hurt vaping businesses.

Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens put the prohibition on hold until “further order of this court.” The preliminary injunction will be appealed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who ordered the creation of the emergency rules in a bid to combat the epidemic of teen vaping.

As of last week, vaping-related illnesses in the U.S. had reached about 1,300 cases in 49 states and one U.S. territory, including at least 26 deaths.

Government survey figures show that last year, one in five U.S. high school students reported vaping in the previous month.

In California: A man who showed up at a Northern California police station with a dead body in his car confessed to killing four family members, three of whom were found inside his apartment, police said Tuesday.

Shankar Hangud, 53, was arrested Monday after he turned himself in to Mount Shasta police and told investigators he had killed the man in his car, Roseville Police Capt. Josh Simon said. Police said he also confessed to killing three other people at his apartment in Roseville, about 260 miles south of Mount Shasta.

Hangud is facing four murder charges, Simon said.

Detectives have interviewed Hangud, but they have not determined a motive, he said.