Generally web master uses the WordPress for applying blog on their website.

Below is the code for the getting recent/latest post or list, can be applied to display recent posts outside anywhere in your WordPress website.

The key to use WordPress outside is include the wp-load.php file
Once the wp-load.php file is included, the entire wealth of WordPress functions will available for you to use.
This can be found under the root folder.

<?php

require_once 'wp-load.php';

// Recent 10 posts
 $recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts(array('numberposts' => 10));

// Apply your design/html
 echo '<ul>';
 foreach($recent_posts as $post) {
 echo '<li><a href="', get_permalink($post['ID']), '">', $post['post_title'], '</a></li>';
 }
 echo '</ul>';

?>

If you want to pass more argument, you can do, below is the WordPress reference URL for wp_get_recent_posts function
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_get_recent_posts

You can also do your own custom queries with WP_Query.