Magento: Create top category offer box

Create a top category offer box on Magento front page linked to a category and filled with one of selected products from a hidden category.

/var/www/app/design/frontend/default/default/template/catalog/product/top-category.phtml
<?php
$URL="http://www.panticz.de/sites/default/files/magento/home/top-category.phtml";

echo "Download: $URL";
echo "<div><pre>";
</pre></div>

$c = curl_init();
curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_URL, $URL);
curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

echo htmlspecialchars(curl_exec($c));

curl_close($c);

echo "";