come hot on the heels of, sanctions

It's looking like 2009 may be the year that synthesized voices go mainstream; this talking iPod comes hot on the heels of Amazon's Kindle 2, which can read your e-books aloud to you. In the Shuffle's case, this is an especially interesting development, because it means that the player itself can be out of sight.

Democrats Urge Sanctions
On Iran's Central Bank

By GLENN R. SIMPSON

On the heels of new United Nations sanctions against Iran, more than half the Democrats in the Senate are planning to ask the Bush administration to unilaterally impose sanctions on the country's central bank.

sanc・tion

━━ n., v. 認可［裁可］（する）, （世論の）是認（する）; 処罰; 【国際法】（普通pl.） （封鎖などによる）制裁（措置）; （道徳的）拘束力.

sanction (APPROVAL)

sanction (ORDER) Hide phonetics
noun
1 [C usually plural] an official order, such as the stopping of trade, which is taken against a country in order to make it obey international law:
Many nations have imposed sanctions on the country because of its attacks on its own people.
Trade/economic sanctions will only be lifted (= stopped) when the aggressor nation withdraws its troops.

2 [C] a strong action taken in order to make people obey a law or rule, or a punishment given when they disobey:
Without realistic sanctions, some teachers have difficulty keeping order in the classroom.





hard/hot on sb's heels
following someone very closely:
She ran down the steps with a group of journalists hard on her heels.

come/follow hard/hot on the heels of sth
to happen very soon after something:
For Walter, disaster followed hard on the heels of his initial success.