Which New Year did you mean?

[I wrote this article for Brunei Times for 1st January 2008 but it is equally applicable for today's 1st January 2009.]TODAY is the first day of 2008 AD or, to be all-inclusive 2007 CE ("Common Era") since AD stands for the Latin expression Anno Domini — "in the year of our Lord", in reference to Jesus Christ. As the Oxford Dictionary pointed out, "AD" refers strictly to "the Christian Era".So —