php fopen https error

With RHEL/CentOS 5 php I get an SSL Error
RHEL/CentOS 5 php is at 5.1.6 with security fixes backported.

<?php
 $handle = fopen("https://maps.google.com", "r");
 $contents = stream_get_contents($handle);
 fclose($handle);
?>

will result in something like

Warning: stream_get_contents(): SSL: fatal protocol error in bla.php on
line 3

Some https pages do not raise this error, e.g. https://www.redhat.com is
fine
What is wrong? How to debug? How to resolve? How to mitigate?

Thanks
-- 
Markus Falb