Pokémon GO

In a blog post, Niantic said it issued sanctions to players across three games - Pokemon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite.

It said since 2020, more than 20% of those were permanent bans.

"We have made a commitment with all of our players towards promoting fair gameplay...and improving transparency with our players," the creator wrote.

The three popular games all use augmented reality to combine gaming with the real world.

How does the cheating work?

The court in the city of Yekaterinburg found Ruslan Sokolovsky guilty of insulting religious believers and inciting hatred.

During the trial, Sokolovsky, now aged 22, had pleaded not guilty.

He filmed himself playing the popular game in the local Orthodox church in August 2016.

He was arrested shortly afterwards.

On Thursday, Sokolovsky was also found guilty of "illegal trafficking of special technical equipment" after a pen with a built-in video camera had been discovered during the search of his home.

The delay was caused by security fears over Google Maps, according to Reuters.

In South Korea, functions on Google Maps are limited by the government for national security reasons.

The makers did not specify how they had worked around the problem but some reports suggested that they had to use publicly available data to fill gaps.

The game, which was jointly developed by Nintendo and Niantic Labs, challenges users to walk around the real world capturing virtual monsters and training them to fight each other.

Sure, hundreds of millions of players were wandering around, eyes glued to smartphones, putting their energies into "catching" imaginary creatures in the augmented reality game.

And yes, okay, maybe the quest to "catch 'em all" meant they occasionally strayed into less-than-appropriate locations. Like Holocaust museums.

Sure, hundreds of millions of players were wandering around, eyes glued to smartphones, putting their energies into "catching" imaginary creatures in the augmented reality game.

And yes, okay, maybe the quest to "catch 'em all" meant they occasionally strayed into less-than-appropriate locations. Like Holocaust museums.

The augmented-reality game's popularity has waned since its launch in July when it smashed download records and sparked a global craze.

But it soon fell from the top of app charts as downloads plunged and many players stopped buying in-game coins.

Analysts, though, point out it has an enormous player base and is still one of the highest grossing mobile games.

The main updates released on Monday by US firm Niantic, which developed the game under licence from Nintendo, include:

Isn't that weird?

A Gujarat resident, Alay Anil Dave has recently filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Gujarat High Court against Niantic, developers of Pokémon Go, over allegations that the game is hurting religious sentiments of Hindus and Jains by showing virtual eggs in places of worship of different religious groups.

Liberal Party leader Trine Skei Grande was caught on camera during a foreign affairs and defence committee hearing catching a Pokemon after asking a question to a group of military experts.

The Liberals are a key supporter in parliament of the minority coalition in power led by Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

"It is crucial that we take our responsibility in the NATO alliance and the Arctic seriously. We have been talking about very important things today," Oeyvind Halleraker, the committee's deputy leader told the daily VG, which first reported the story.

The suspect, a 39-year old farmer, was driving a small truck on Tuesday evening when he failed to notice two women crossing the road because he was playing the popular augmented reality game, the police said.

One of the victims, a woman in her early 70s, died of a spinal injury after being hit by the truck. The other woman has been hospitalized with a severe injury.

The police said the driver told them he was not paying attention and had been distracted by Pokemon Go. It was the first case of a death in Japan resulting from someone playing the game, they added.

That’s what Willie Diaz said when asked if the app is useful for finding potential partners.

Diaz’s friend, Josue Quinonez, said he had already met three women  by using the app.

“It’s not as shallow, it’s more like we have a common interest, we like to go outside and discover new things,” Diaz said. “Discovering new things is so much more dope than 'I’m going to sit at home and swipe left or swipe right.'”