Integrating an HTTP client into Gnumeric

["Yoram Kulbak" <yoram kulbak gmail com>]

Hello,

I would like to integrate an HTTP client into Gnumeric and I need help with choosing the best implementation approach.
The functionality I'm trying to implement is:
1. The user launches Gnumeric 
2. The user selects a URL from a list of URLs 
3. An embedded HTTP client connects to the selected URL and starts a periodically retrieving data from that URL (every minute a 'new value' is retrieved)
4. The retrieved values are presented in a chart which is updated every time a new value arrives

Questions:
1. Can I implement this with Python? Specifically how to run a periodic Python task from within Gnumeric?
2. Can I implement using CORBA - e.g. write an HTTP and CORBA client which executes in a separate process and connects both to Gnumeric and to the HTTP data supplier?
3. Do I have other implementation options?

Help will be greatly appreciated!
Yoram