 THE JaPaNESE emergency prompted the German Chancellor, angela Merkel, to order the immediate closure of seven of the country's 17 atomic power plants yesterday as public opposition to her nuclear energy policies started to threaten her coalition.  Ms Merkel's conservative-liberal coalition had planned to extend the life of the seven oldest reactors by 12 years to allow green technologies enough time to replace them. Yesterday, however, she announced that the events in Japan meant the r 