700-pound man hopes to stand for wedding

MONTERREY, Mexico -- Manuel Uribe, who once weighed a half ton but has slimmed down to about 700 pounds, celebrates his 43rd birthday on Wednesday with a simple wish for the coming year: to be able to stand on his own two feet to get married.

Manuel 'Meme' Uribe, 42, smiles with his girlfriend Claudia Solis, during an interview with the Associated Press, in Monterrey, Mexico, Monday, June 9, 2008. [Agencies] 

Interviewed at his home in northern Mexico, where he can still do little more than sit up on a bed, Uribe said more than two years of steady dieting have helped him drop about 550 pounds from his Guinness record weight of 1,235 pounds