Get latest Drupal version

drupal_latest.php

<?php
/**
 * Get Drupal latest version
 */

$latest = NULL;
$url = 'http://updates.drupal.org/release-history/drupal/7.x';

$context = stream_context_create(array(
	'http' => array(
		'method'  => 'GET',
		'timeout' => 10,
	),
));

$data = file_get_contents($url, FALSE, $context);

if($data)
	$feed = simplexml_load_string($data);

if($feed && $feed instanceof SimpleXMLElement) {

	// Check the property exists and assign
	if( isset($feed->releases->release[0]->version) ) {
	
		$latest = $feed->releases->release[0]->version;
		
		echo $latest;
		// return $latest;
	}
}