10 things you need to know today: August 16, 2013

1. SNOWDEN DOCUMENTS SAY THE NSA VIOLATED PRIVACY RULES

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules thousands of times every year since Congress gave it wider surveillance powers in 2008, The Washington Post reported, citing an internal audit and other secret documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Most of the missteps involved the unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreigners in the U.S. "We're a human-run agency," an NSA official said. "So at times we find ourselves on the wrong side of the line." [Washington Post]

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2. EGYPT'S MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD CALLS FOR "DAY OF RAGE"

Egyptians braced for more violence on Friday as the Muslim Brotherhood called for a "day of rage" to denounce an assault by security forces on supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi. The crackdown left at least 638 people dead. The violence spread on Thursday, with state TV blaming pro-Morsi forces for attacking government buildings and Christian churches. President Obama canceled joint U.S.-Egyptian military exercises scheduled for next month, saying the violence "needs to stop." [CBS News]

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3. PENTAGON ANNOUNCES ITS RESPONSE TO SEXUAL ASSAULTS

The Pentagon on Thursday unveiled its plan to combat an epidemic of sexual assault in the military by providing more support for victims and spelling out more uniform policies for going after attackers. Critics in Congress, who had been pressuring the Defense Department to act, said the measures did not go far enough. White House press secretary Jay Carney said the initiatives were "substantial, but only a step along a path toward eliminating this crime from our military ranks." [Columbus Dispatch]

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4. DEATH TOLL RISES FROM CAR BOMB IN LEBANON

A deadly car bombing ripped through a Beirut suburb known as a stronghold of the militant Shiite movement Hezbollah Thursday night. A government official said Friday that the death toll from the blast had risen to 22, making it the deadliest bombing in Lebanon in more than eight years. The attack — and a similar bombing last month — was assumed to be payback for Hezbollah's support for government forces in the civil war in neighboring Syria. [New York Times, ABC News]

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5. HANNAH ANDERSON ATTENDS FUNDRAISER FOR HER FAMILY

Hannah Anderson, the 16-year-old Californian who was abducted by a family friend also suspected of killing her mother and brother, on Thursday made her first public appearance since her rescue Saturday, appearing at a restaurant holding a fundraiser for her family. [Washington Times]

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6. NASA SAYS KEPLER'S PLANET-HUNTING DAYS ARE OVER

NASA announced Thursday that its Kepler space telescope, disabled by a glitch in May, could not be fixed and would not be able to resume its hunt for faraway Earth-like planets. Kepler has four reaction wheels. It needs at least three to be functional to point accurately at distant stars, but two are broken. Since its 2009 launch, the spacecraft has discovered 3,548 possible planets, and scientists expect to find more as they search through the trove of data Kepler has compiled. [New York Times]

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7. EARTHQUAKE RATTLES NEW ZEALAND

A magnitude-6.5 earthquake rattled central New Zealand on Friday, destroying a bridge and sending office workers scrambling for cover in the capital city of Wellington. No injuries were reported, but several buildings were evacuated and rescuers had to free people from disabled elevators. New Zealand, part of the Pacific's "Ring of Fire," is prone to earthquakes. It felt a similar tremor three weeks ago, and a severe quake in 2011 killed 185 people in Christchurch. [Associated Press]

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8. NEW MAMMAL DISCOVERED

Scientists on Thursday announced the discovery of the first new carnivore found in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years — a 2-pound animal that looks like a cross between a raccoon and a teddy bear and lives in the high cloud forest of the Andes mountains in Ecuador and Colombia. (See a photo here.) The animal — the olinguito — was overlooked for decades, even though a Chicago museum had a specimen for years. [Bloomberg]

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9. THAT '70s SHOW ACTRESS DIES

Actress Lisa Robin Kelly, best known as a star of the sitcom That '70s Show, died this week at a rehab center, her agent said Thursday. She was 43. No cause of death was immediately released. Kelly had been contending with personal troubles — her estranged husband was arrested after a disturbance at their North Carolina home in November, and she was charged with DUI in June. [CNN]

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10. BASEBALL EXPANDS INSTANT REPLAY TO FIGHT BAD CALLS

Major League Baseball announced Thursday that it planned to expand the use of instant replay in the 2014 season, implementing it on virtually every call other than balls and strikes. Managers will get three challenges per game, giving them unprecedented influence and providing a tool to reduce bad calls that can decide games. Critics argue that the change will make already-long games even longer, while still letting bad calls sneak through. [New York Daily News]