Can't change time from UTC to localtime

[Siri Amrit Kaur]

I started having clock problems again, whereby my incoming mail shows 
it comes in at UTC and not localtime. Started when I rebooted the 
confuser. I've read the clock manpage and tried everything (as root) 
to set the system clock to localtime, and nothing works. I looked 
at /usr/share/zoneinfo, and the localtime file is there, but NOT 
there. I see it, but the system keeps telling me the file does not 
exist. Under "properties" in Konqueror, it says the file is a link 
and has no permissions. 

Can someone please tell me a sequence for setting the system time to 
localtime? I'm using Debian...

Thanks for any help.
Siri Amrit