PHP - Problem With Stale Rss Feed

I am trying to troubleshoot a problem with a php script that incorporates an RSS feed (with Magpie 0.72.)  I did not code the site, and am trying to retrace the original logic.  Tech support at my web hosting firm said that the problem was in line 4 of INDEX.PHP:
1.   <?php
2.   require ("\\\\(HOSTING SITE NAME)\\config.inc.php");
3.   require ($CONFIG['admin_dir'].'page.class.php');
4.   require ($CONFIG['admin_dir'].'function.inc.php');
5.   $currentFile = $_SERVER["SCRIPT_NAME"];
6.   $parts = explode('/', $currentFile);
7.   $currentFile = $parts[count($parts) - 1];
8.   $currentFile = preg_replace("/\.\w+$/", "", $currentFile);
9.   $page = new page($currentFile, $CONFIG);
10.   if ( !$page->isActive() ) {
a.   $currentFile = $CONFIG['404_page'];
b.   $page = new page($currentFile, $CONFIG);
11.   }
12.   require ($CONFIG['include_dir'].$page->getTemplate().'.php');
13.   ?>

The RSS feed is in an INCLUDES directory that is defined by CONFIG.INC.PHP:

<?php
    # URL to the RSS feed
    // CIO.com
    $FEED_URL = "http://feeds.cio.com/cio/feed/articles?format=rss";
    $NUM_ITEMS = 5;
   
    require($CONFIG['include_dir'].'magpierss-0.72\rss_fetch.inc');
   
    # Fetch the feed
    error_reporting(E_ERROR);
    $rss = fetch_rss($FEED_URL);
    if($rss) {
        # Split array with our amount of items
        $items = array_slice($rss->items, 0, $NUM_ITEMS);
       
        $rssChannelTitle = $rss->channel['title'];
        $rssChannelLink = $rss->channel['link'];
        // $rssChannelDesc = $rss->channel['description'];
        $output = "";
        $output .= "";
        foreach ( $items as $item ) {
            $output .= '<li class="item">';
                $output .= '<a class="itemLink" target="blank" href="';
                    $output .= $item['link'] . '">';
                    $output .= $item['title'];
                $output .= '</a>';
                /* CIO's feed contains ads.
                  $output .= '<p class="description">' . $item['description'] . '</p>';
                 */
            $output .= "</li>";
        }
        $output .= "";
    }
?>
<?php if($rss) { ?>
    <div class="rssFeed <?php echo $rssChannelTitle ?>">
        <h1>
            <a href="<?php echo $rssChannelLink ?>">
                <?php echo $rssChannelTitle ?>
            </a>
        </h1>
        <!-- <h2><?php echo $rssChannelDesc ?></h2> -->
        <ul class="itemList">
            <?php echo $output ?>
        </ul>
    </div>
<?php } ?>

What am I missing?