This is what I use for the head in an ePub.
Code:
<head>
<title>Echoes in Death</title>
<link href="../styles/stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
<meta content="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"/>
</head>
The last line makes sure the coding is defined as UTF-8 encoding. Not all programs/Readers force UTF-8 encoding. Kindle's do not default to UTF-8. ADE does force UTF-8.