WordPress Show Latest Posts without Plugin

/* add this to your template where you want to display latest posts
==========================================
<div id="latestnews" class="homewidget">
    <h3 class="widgettitle">Latest News</h3>
        <ul>
            <?php
            // Get any existing copy of our transient data
            if ( false === ( $recent_posts = get_transient( 'recent_posts' ) ) ) {
                // It wasn't there, so regenerate the data and save the transient
                $args = array( 'numberposts' => '5',
                        'post_status' => 'publish' );
                $recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts( $args , FALSE);

                 set_transient( 'recent_posts', $recent_posts );
             }

            //store the original post data
            $tmp_post = $post;

            foreach( $recent_posts as $post ) :
                setup_postdata($post);
                echo '<li><h4><a href="' . get_permalink() . '" title="Permalink to '.get_the_title().'" >' . get_the_post_thumbnail(get_the_id(),array(60,60)). get_the_title().'</a></h4></li> ';
            endforeach;

            //restore original $post data
            $post = $tmp_post;
            ?>
    </ul>
</div>



/* add this to your functions.php
==========================================
// Create a simple function to delete our recent posts transient
function delete_recent_posts_transient() {
     delete_transient( 'recent_posts' );
}
// Add the function to the save_post hook so it runs when posts are saved
add_action( 'save_post', 'delete_recent_posts_transient' );