Crime gangs are flooding the state with black market versions of Xanax, a prescription pill that already kills more Victorians than all other illegal drugs combined.

The age pension and other ­social security benefits will ­deliver more than five million Australians their biggest payment rise in almost a decade next week.

Nearly one in 10 trainee teachers can’t do basic maths, spell simple words or correctly use punctuation, prompting calls for low-performing graduates to be weeded out of teaching degrees earlier.

Dual Essendon premiership defender Dean Wallis has suffered a major heart attack in Echuca.