Mexico state shuts Canadian-run mine

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TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Dec 9 (AP): A Canadian-owned mine at the center of a dispute over the slaying of a Mexican mining activist has been shut down for environmental reasons, authorities said Tuesday.
The mine operated by Blackfire Exploration Ltd. in southern Mexico near the Guatemalan border "was closed because it was affecting the environment," Chiapas state's environmental department said in a statement.
Authorities accused the company of building roads and changing land use without authorisation as well as polluting. No one answered the phone at Blackfire's headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, late Tuesday to comment on the state's order.
The closure came 11 days after the Nov. 27 killing of anti-mine activist Mariano Abarca Robledo, a slaying that fellow activists blame on mine officials.