class  workingThread(Thread):

    def __init__(self, gui, testCase):
        Thread.__init__(self)
        self.myName = Thread.getName(self)
        self.start()    # start the thread

    def core(self,arg,f) : # Where I check the flag and run the actual code

        # STOP
        if (self.StopFlag == True):
            if self.isAlive():

                self.doHouseCleaning()
                # none of following works all throw exceptions
                self.exit()
                self.join()
                self._Thread__stop()
                self._Thread_delete()
                self.quit()

            # Check if it's terminated or not
            if not(self.isAlive()):
               print self.myName + " terminated "



        # PAUSE
        elif (self.StopFlag == False) and not(self.isSet()):

            print self.myName + " paused"

            while not(self.isSet()):
                pass

        # RUN
        elif (self.StopFlag == False) and self.isSet():
            r = f(arg)

import threading
import time

class MyThread(threading.Thread):

    def __init__(self):
        super(MyThread,self).__init__()
        self.count = 5

    def run(self):
        while self.count:
            print("I'm running for %i more seconds" % self.count)
            time.sleep(1)
            self.count -= 1

t = MyThread()
print("Starting %s" % t)
t.start()
# do whatever you need to do while the other thread is running
t.join()
print("%s finished" % t)

Starting <MyThread(Thread-1, initial)>
I'm running for 5 more seconds
I'm running for 4 more seconds
I'm running for 3 more seconds
I'm running for 2 more seconds
I'm running for 1 more seconds
<MyThread(Thread-1, stopped 6712)> finished

import urllib2
urllib2.urlopen(url[, data][, timeout])

import socket
socket.setdefaulttimeout(timeout)