This works:
<?php $fp = fopen("http://ravenge.com/larisa/footer.shtml", "r") ?>
<?php $strfoot = fgets($fp, 9999) ?>
<?php print($strfoot) ?>
<?php fclose($fp) ?>
Result: First line of footer.shtml displayed

This does not work:
<script language="php"> 
  $fp = fopen("http://ravenge.com/larisa/footer.shtml", "r");
  $strfoot = fgets($fp, 9999);
  print($strfoot);
  fclose($fp);
</script>;
Result: Same as the above (correct) result, except a semicolon (;) is
  being appended to the print() output.  This is either because 1. the
  print() statement is accidentally writing out the ";" at the end of the
  line, or 2. the fgets() statement is adding the ";" to the value of the
  $strfoot variable.

I do not have PHP installed on my system.  All I'm doing is uploading
test.php3 to my ISP and viewing the results in my browser.