Easiest question (newbie)

Cant i connect to a database thru ActionScript or Flash? Its a MySQL database.
And if i cant, im using ASP, and i want the flash to refresh every 10 second, NOT the whole frame. I’ll use

**stop();
var loop = true;
var timer = setInterval(makeLoop, 10000);

function makeLoop()
{
if(loop)
{
loop = false;
clearInterval(timer);
Play();
}
}
**
and can i somehow get the information from the database without the frame being refreshed? If this is hard to answer, just answer Yes or No. I’ll try figuring the rest by my self.