funwithcounting.php

<?php
$dir = 'news';
$nstuffa = scandir($dir);
$nstuff = array();
foreach ($nstuffa as $nitem) {
  if ($nitem == '.' || $nitem == '..') continue;
  $nstuff[$nitem] = filectime($dir.'/'.$nitem);
}
arsort($nstuff, SORT_NUMERIC);
$ncount = 0;
foreach ($nstuff as $nitem => $ntime) {
  $thelist .= '<li><a href="/'.$dir.'/'.$nitem.'">'.$nitem.'</li></a>';
  if (++$ncount >= 5)
    break;
}

echo $thelist;

this is great!