As a pure CSS solution for the close or ‘times’ symbol you can use the ISO code with the content property. I often use this for :after or :before pseudo selectors.
The content code is \00d7.
Example
div:after{
display: inline-block;
content: "\00d7"; /* This will render the 'X' */
}
You can then style and position the pseudo selector in any way you want.
Hope this helps someone :).