I don't think it's as complicated as you might think, Niels.

• I will give access to maemo.org's server (IP) to Talk's MySQL database.
• PHP will handle connection direct to Talk's database
• Create a 'threadid' column for article and app tables to store the newly created thread id in Talk
• Comment count can all be queried directly from the database via the threadid
• Thread creator can be a special forum user like 'NewsBot', 'AppBot', or 'BlogBot', to bypass SSO requirement

If this is a problem on your side, I can create something on my side. All you need to do is call a hidden page when a new item is created in maemo.org, passing the id of an XML/JSON feed containing details of the new item -- like type (news, app, blog, etc), title, description, unique ID, etc., and I will create the new thread in Talk. You still need to connect to Talk's database though to query for the total comments, unless you prefer that I pass it via XML/JSON back to you.

No ajax needed if you have direct access to the database via PHP. You can use ajax though to get the current number of comments from a script that I can gladly create for you.