GMT offset & Time zones

[Afshan Raees]

Hi all,
I want to the current time zone setting for the device and using the
following pref:

PrefGetPreference ( prefMinutesWestOfGMT );

The values that I am getting out of this is a huge value like this
956039168 which doesn't make sense for US. Has anybody ventured out with
time zones and locale settings? Any input into this will be highly
appreciated.

I am using NT as the development platform with 2.1d29 emulator.

Thanks

afshan